which sander to get

I'm trying to decide what to ask Santa for Christmas this year. Or really which web page to get SWMBO to order from. The method of work that I'm most frustrated with is using my bench top drill press as a drum sander. All my other powered sanders are the hand held type, so I'm thinking a multipurpose sander.

For a hobbyist wooddorker who makes mostly chairs, tables, cabinets, etc which sander would you guys recommend?

The Grizzly G1531 6" x 80" Edge Sander

formatting link
lets me do some serious edge sanding for table legs and such. The contour part should do most of what I want, but not everything. The radius looks to be between 2-3".

The Grizzly G0529 Oscillating Spindle / 12" Disc Sander

formatting link
be a better choice for contour sanding since it oscillates and would do multiple radii. Not sure how well the disk would work for longer pieces though.

Or I could go cheap and get the Grizzly G9922 Oscillating Spindle Sander

formatting link
and get a edge sander later on.

If you can't tell, I like Grizzly. My shop is mostly green and it's worked out pretty well.

Thanks! Chris Corbett

Reply to
chrisacorbett
Loading thread data ...

I have both a 12" and 9" disk sander, and they take material off REAL quick... usually quicker than people want it off and in uneven chunks.. they work great for a drill press or on the Shopsmith as poor boy's thickness planers, though...

Reply to
mac davis

Chris:

I don't know how it will work for your specific product mix, but my choices are as follows: - 6x48" vertical belt sander (can also sand some curves on the top roller without too much effort) - Oscillating vertical drum sander (next best for dealing with curves) - wide belt sander (24" open end, can do 48" in alternate passes) - 6x80 edge sander (as you might guess, I don't do a lot of long, flat edges, and can take care of the few table top edges I do work on with hand operated power sanders).

Note that the first two take a very small amount of relative floor space. The wide belt sander takes more, because it takes the place of a large drum sander (for table tops, I would really rather have a multiple drum, 60" wide drum sander, but I don't do enough tables to warrant the thousands of dollars one of these costs). Given the cost of sanding belts these days, you could easily substitute an equivalent width drum sander (24" to 30" open end drum sander) and still be able to sand a 48" wide tabletop. No matter what any salesman will try to tell you, there will be some manual sanding necessary with any double pass sander like this, but it's still better than doing it all "by hand" or with a hand operated belt sander...

I use the 6x48 vertical belt sander for typical sanding tasks, plus sharpening lathe tools, and even use the top roller for curved items (less now, given the oscillating drum sander), still, a really coarse belt on the 6x48 allows one to hog off a lot of unwanted wood before going to the oscillating drum... (of course, a decently close cut with the bandsaw would help just as much, but depending on whether you already have one, it might make a difference in your thought processes). THe oscillating drum sander typically runs a 2" drum, so you can't hog off a lot of wood, but it's good for medium cuts and pre-finishing processes.

Of course, wide belt sanders and wide drum sanders are typically used for tables and such, and have limited utility beyond that, unless you use them for surfacing boards for other projects (a decent planer can get things close enough that a wide drum or belt of 150 or finer can be used), but if you don't have a planer, coarse belts/drums can be used in place of a planer if you don't have one, and are patient. Feeding too fast is the biggest problem of most belt/drum sanders, leading to premature loading of the "paper" and subsequent burn marks in the project.

Thanks

--Rick

" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote:

Reply to
Rick Frazier

The OSS and Disc get the use in my shop. Don't even keep a belt on the JET

12/6x48 any more, just add when I need it. Tuned planes are really great.

Makes the 0529 the choice, if you're a Grizz lover.

multipurpose

Reply to
George

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 02:55:37 GMT, " snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" calmly ranted:

Buy a set of scrapers from Lee Valley or get the H5568 set from Griz. Long pieces don't need sanding as often as curves/end grain do, so some scrapers and maybe a ROS should do ya.

I've been working with rasps and files more this week and find them to be quick and suitable for many rounding and smoothing operations.

I have 4 Griz products and am very happy with them.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Thanks for the responses. I'm including in my list a 6 x 48 / disk combination sander. I'm still not sold on anything yet so I'm going to take a tour around my local Woodcraft and checkout their machines.

Thanks, Chris Corbett " snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote in message news:JaUmd.1797$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Reply to
chrisacorbett

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.