: Are there any favorite belt sander models among you guys? Or ones to stay
: away from? I need to flatten some rough cut and slightly bowed Sapele
: which has tightly spaced alternating bands of grain, so planing is out of
: the question. Kinda slow too. Seems like a belt sander would get me in the
: ballpark before I switch of a ROS or manual methods.

: Ted

If you have a radial arm saw you can flatten twisted or warped timber by:....

locking the blade cross-cut mode
set depth so that it will just knock off the highest points of your timber
run timber through rippping fashion (perpendicular to the spinning blade
move blade out a half inch or less for every pass
If the timber is very warped lower the blade and repeat. (small increments will give the most refined result)
turn over timber and repeat on other side.

it will help if you have a flat length of 3/4 inch ply or a flat plank (longer than the twisted piece) that you can screw the twisted plank to to use as a flat base line and to help keep hands away form the blade. (do not pull out the twist in so doing).

For added safety you can add a block or handle for pulling on each end and a blocking guard-block blade side of that. Two people, one working from each end, work best for this job although I have done it alone on many occasions.

This is not a standard use for a radial arm saw. Work carefully and safely. It is a repetative process and concentration may wander.

I hope that all makes sense.

Et