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Does anyone have a suggestion as to what might happen caused this to happen?

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I cleaned up the debris, blew out the belt sander, mounted a different belt and everything works fine now. Need to order new belts. I have only one left. This is what happens when you ignore Sanding Sales specials.

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Dusty,
What kind of sanding operation were you doing at the time?
Regards,
Dwight

Actually, I was killing time while the finish dried on some of my bathroom cabinet doors. I was flattening the bottoms of what will become figures in a Christmas scene.

I was not even sanding when the belt began to rip apart. By the time I could turn the sander off, I had what you have seen here.

Yes, the belt was well used but do used belts routinely come apart like this.

Now I regret not having placed an order during the recent "Sanding Special".

Your comments make it seem as though you might think I was being too frugal.

dusty wrote: Your comments make it seem as though you might think I was being too frugal.

I think maybe CHEAP is a better word. This from a guy who figures his worn course belt is now a medium or fine belt.

I think it may have been Rick at the TA who said that the adhesive used to put the belts together has a usable life of about a year.

I had trouble with a belt that wouldn't track correctly because it was worn out and would move off to the side and rub against the frame and shredded itself.

Dusty,
As has been observed and you did state that it was a worn belt--all it would take is a frayed portion, perhaps at the seam, of the belt to catch the table and peel it right off the sander. Too much tension can cause early failure--unlikely with the SS belt sander with its style of tensioning but I thought I would mention it anyway. I have heard that an edge that is being sanded in line with the same direction as the belt is turning can slice a belt as well. And as with anything--there are only so many go arounds, on and offs, up and downs, back and forths, etc. before something breaks. IMHO
Regards,
Dwight

dusty wrote:Actually, I was killing time while the finish dried on some of my bathroom cabinet doors. I was flattening the bottoms of what will become figures in a Christmas scene.

I was not even sanding when the belt began to rip apart. By the time I could turn the sander off, I had what you have seen here.

I have a hunch on what may have been the last straw for this belt. Perhaps one of the Christmas figures had a staple or nail in the bottom. On an older belt it wouldn't have had to be much - just the end of a nail or staple could have done it.

This brings me to another comment above that has caused me frustration more than once. Finally, I learned that a coarse abrasive belt will never become a medium or finer abrasive belt. It will just become a dull ineffective coarse abrasive. This may be one of Nick's woodworking myths from his book "Woodworking Wisdom".

You can tell when a given piece of sandpaper or a belt is worn out. It won't grab the wood as effectively and won't put down the same surface as it did when new. Yes, even the abrasive on my SS sanding belts wears down. That is the time I put the belt with other used belts, hoping beyond hope they may recover and get more effective some day. However, after a couple of more trial uses, I'll finally bite the bullet and throw the heartbreak away, with tears in my eyes and my hand on my wallet.

Let's see...use belt until it is worn...push harder to get better results due to the belt being worn out...belt disintegrates...

Do you know what dusty? I probably will do the same thing! Is knot it amazing how frugal we all are? As long as it does knot fall apart, keep using it! So that brings up a good question (for everyone):

When do you decide to throw a sanding belt, or disk, away? I may change out my belts, and velcro backed disks, for different grits, but I never seem to want to discard any of them.