Where the sizes come from.
Almost every source is a document the machine’s maker publishes: an instruction manual, a data sheet, a product page or a spare-parts list. Some brands belong to a retailer, such as Craftex at Busy Bee Tools or HAFCO at Machinery House, so the retailer’s documents are the brand’s own. In a few cases the source is a specification sheet published by a dealer. We don’t use forum posts, reviews, marketplace listings or “compatible with” lists from blade and belt sellers.
Each machine page shows its sources under “Where this size comes from”, with a link to the document, the section the figure is in, and the date we checked it. We link manuals and never host copies of them.
What a size needs to be Documented.
A size is marked Documented only when all of this is true:
- Every required dimension is known. For a sanding belt that is the width and the loop length; for a bandsaw blade, the loop length.
- A source covers each of them. We record which dimensions each source states, so a blade length from a manual and a width range from a data sheet are each backed by the document that gives them. The machine page lists them under “Supports”.
- It has been checked. Each size carries the date we last checked it against its sources.
Anything short of that is “needs checking”. Those records stay out of the size pages, the scanner and the country listings until the missing evidence is found.
Exactly as printed.
We keep each size the way the manufacturer wrote it, in inches or millimetres, and show the exact conversion next to it (one inch is exactly 25.4 mm). A figure printed as 44-7/8 in stays 44-7/8 in; one printed as 1140 mm stays 1140 mm. We never merge two sizes because they are close; metric and inch sizes explains why.
One record per country and configuration.
The same model can take a different blade or belt in another country, or with a riser block or another factory option. So every country version and every configuration is its own record with its own sources. A configuration never borrows a size from another one: if the manual for a riser-block version doesn’t give a blade length, that version shows the length as unknown.
What stays unknown.
When a source doesn’t state something, such as a blade thickness or the range a tensioner can take up, we show it as unknown. We don’t fill gaps from a similar model, a model name, a photo or our own measurements.
When a figure changes.
Manufacturers revise manuals and pages. When a documented figure changes, we record the new one as a new revision of the specification and keep the earlier one on file, rather than overwriting it.
What visitors and shops can’t change.
- Workshop reports. Visitors can report how a documented size fitted. We read every report before it appears and publish negative ones too, but a report never changes a size.
- Shopping links. Retailer buttons are searches for the documented size. We may earn a commission when you buy through them, and that never changes which size is shown.
- Sponsors. Any sponsor space is labelled and sits below the answer. Sponsors can’t edit or choose sizes.
Found a mistake?
If your machine is missing, ask for it. If a size looks wrong or a source has moved, tell us, ideally with a link to the manufacturer’s document. Corrections go through the same checks as every other size.
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