Belt sander has a rotating sander belt that is made up of sandpaper. Beltdisk sander ive found myself needing to grind steel a lot lately but i cant keep turning the hand held belt sander upside down and using it as a flat surface.

Ibgb 436vs 8 Inch Variable Speed Industrial Grinder And 4 X
Belt sander vs bench grinder. A belt sander is used for sanding mostly wooden material. There is no speed control on the bench grinder they are not the same machines. Belt has many options. It is capable of grinding away rough edges smoothly on items like drill bits scissors knives and chisels. Its not really intended to be an apples to apples comparison. It is hands down that you would choose to use a bench grinder over a belt sander when you need to sharpen tools etc.
Lets put it to the test against 2 bench grinders. Difference between bench grinders and belt sanders the bench grinder is designed to sharpen specific items. This equipment has a belt of abrasive metal that helps in grinding the metal. Belt grinder is used for grinding the metals for industrial purposes. Its a 100 grinder vs a 1000 belt grinder. Bench is stuck to a few grits belt has many plus small wheel and platen or slack belt work can not be done on a bench grinder.
Been looking into a little bench grinder or maybe a freestanding beltdisk sander. One main reason is that the bench grinder is specifically made to sharpen tools and other dull implements. What are the differences. Is a belt grinder worth the cost. It needs to be fixed steadily to a workbench or any other kind of mount. While there are some tasks that can be done with both grinders and sanders overall they are very different tools.
The biggest difference between an angle grinder and a sander is the type of attachments that each of the tools uses. The biggest difference between an angle grinder and a sander is the type of attachment the tool needs in order to run. While there are a lot of projects that you can use both the grinder and the sander to complete it these two tools are very different and come with different features as well. There is another good reason why you would choose to use the bench grinder instead of the belt sander. Bench grinder is restricted to only one size of contact wheel.