Does he want a portable or stationary?
I have both. The portable I use for just about nothing. Last used to sharpen the lawnmower blade. It can be a danger in the wrong hands and can take away a lot of wood real fast, even when you don't want to. .
I also have a Rigid oscillating belt sander ($239 at Home Depot) and I use it on most every project. Allows me to gently smooth curves, do some fine work dimensionally to get a good fit, etc.
Nice that you'd buy him a tool though. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net