Thread: Sander Options / Priority

Belt sander is the most versatile and definitely first on the list. If you get a horizontal belt sander (sometimes called edge sanders) that has a table, you don't really need a disc sander at all.

A disc sander is a piece of junk good for sharpening pencils with
A spindle sander is nice for cleaning up router templates. It's quite difficult to get a good sanded finish with a spindle sander. Low grits dig in, high grits burn and burnish the surface. So that's why I keep 80grit on mine and just make a single nice router template so that I can then use that template to create 100's of components only requiring 180grit hand sanding to remove the cutter marks.

A 6" high oscillating edge sander with a spindle attachment is the bees knees. You can use higher grit belts effectively with it so you could sand table legs quite well and effortlessly ready for finish. One of these is on my 'to buy' list, but my to buy list is in a perpetual state of "unfunded"

I agree belt sander wins hands down

I keep an 60 or 80 grit on my 12" disc sander mainly for MW, ie squaring up ends of tube and angle etc etc mainly because I don't want to wear the belt on my large belt sander which usually holds a 100 grit belt for wood etc and changing belts on the belt sander is a mild nuisance and I have a small (50 mm wide belt) linisher for metal work as well but it has no table. The belt on the finished is really easy to change.

I have thought about buying a spindle sander several times as I do make the odd curved thing but the amount of spindle sanding I do each year can be counted on the fingers of one hand do I can't really justify it. For larger radii of curvature inside curves, the 75mm diameter drum on one end of the belt sander or the end of the linisher can be used. For closed circles I have one of those cylindrical drum sander things that fit in the DP that does an ordinary job but its good enough for what I need it for.

My 150mm x 1m belt sander regularly gets a good work out, as does my Makita 4" belt sander and I have sanded a lot of slabs, wide board and floors etc with that. Large belt sanders need good dust extraction - you may want to factor that into your decision if you haven't got much in that way already.

Thanks Guys, that is great, because even though its the most expensive of the 3, it will save me from buying the other two (for now anyway).

I am thinking of this one, any comments or other recommendations?

https://www.carbatec.com.au/oscillating-edge-sander

Hi pach

I have been looking at the same sander. Seems OK on the showroom floor but unable to test.
If you buy it would appreciate a review.
Cheers
Ron

Good decision. I've used one - they're very good