I probably qualify in the retired hobbiest category; sort of don’t know much but interested. At any rate, I am thinking of buying a sander of a particular type. I’m not sure of the name and a couple of searches haven’t helped much. When I went into a tool place they recognized what I meant right away when I called it a “table sander”. I hope you will put me on the right track and express any opinions about things to look out for if/when I buy one. The particular sander I’m thinking of comes with a belt across a flat bed on one side and it has a circular sanding disk on the other. I’m hoping such a sander will make it a bit easier to square pieces or sand them and keep them square. I’m not going to be handling really big stuff. Right now, for example, I’m making my first mandolin and it has been a fair amount of work sanding the arm to the correct dimensions. I tried setting up my belt sander with a cradle etc. but I found the pad itself wasn’t square and even after squaring the pad I still found it difficult to get results I want. Would sure appreciate any opinions on this as well as comments on size of belt, price range etc… I haven’t found an article in Fine Woodworking I can use on it either…part of the search problem. Thank you for any help you can give…fred
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot
Fred: I think your looking for a combination belt/disc sander? Mine is a Delta #31-695, 6" belt/ 9" disc. This is bigger than what I need, up north I have a Delta 4" belt/ 6" disc. Don't remember the model #.
Google Delta. There are other good ones out there too. Or try E-bay.
James
I have the small Rikon (4 x 36 inch belt; 6" round) and it works well- it was fairly inexpensive (around $120). For what I use it for the small size has worked out well. And I can store it easily. I bought it at Woodcraft
Jeff
The designation belt/disk sander led to lots of information. It's a bit late right now to follow up. I'll do it tomorrow. Looks like you guys are satisfied with fairly small machines. I was thinking 6" belt and 9' disk. Maybe I should rethink that. Thanks for good help. I'm going to try a search using the b/d designation through FWW tomorrow too. Thanks again. Fred
Gee, for awhile I lost my post. Have been trying to figure out the best way of getting around here. Wanted to follow up and tell you what happened. I followed dgreen's link and researched belt/disk sanders. Because JamesS and JeffS have 4 inch I rethought what I was doing and bought a 4X36 belt and 6 inch disk made by Ryobi. The only negative I could find with reviews I read was one guy who broke a drive belt and said it cost almost as much to order the belt as it did to buy the sander. He was choked. So far I am pleased with the sander and it works just fine. It's nice to take small pieces to a point where I can put the final touches on by hand with everything square. I'm glad I went with the small size. I've had spotty success with Ryobi in the past, but the price was right and there is a good repair outfit close by. The only other potential problem is finding disks with glued backs. I shifted over to hook and loop with my ro sander quite some time ago when I found the local merchants weren't stocking disks with glue backs. I got lucky yesterday after buying the sander and found a supplier that had a bunch, but will probably have to use mail order as I run out. I think I did the right thing with the help I got here. It helped to know what you were doing. Fred
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