Thread: Oscillating Belt Sander Experiences

The Hammer HS950 unit seems to review well, I've no experience with it but should be a good step up from the Woodman without being 8k I'm guessing 3-4.

Originally Posted by jonsey850

Hi riverbuilder

I mentioned at the start that I had been looking for a non Chinese used machine for quite some time. They just don’t come up very often, and when they do they are mostly in the southern states. No one will hold a machine for you to organise pickup when they have 10 other people lined up to look at it that afternoon.

Even the second hand machinery dealers seem to rarely come across any. If they do they are most likely sold instantly.

So options are:
1. Wait forever to find a decent used machine by chance.
2. Buy an $8k euro machine.
3. Buy a $1.5k chinese machine.

Option 2 is probably the smart one:
- No time wasted waiting years for a second hand machine.
- No money wasted on China junk.
- Money isn’t wasted on quality if you can afford it.

Another strategy might be to determine your needs - what do you want the sander for? How accurate do you need it to be? Will a Chinese machine do? If so then research which of the Chinese machines offer the best quality. Seems like the Woodman isn't the best of the Chinese machines, Scheppach might be reasonable, the Sherwood is likely reasonable too - will post a review once mine arrives-ordered it today.

Originally Posted by jonsey850

Hi riverbuilder

I mentioned at the start that I had been looking for a non Chinese used machine for quite some time. They just don’t come up very often, and when they do they are mostly in the southern states. No one will hold a machine for you to organise pickup when they have 10 other people lined up to look at it that afternoon.

Even the second hand machinery dealers seem to rarely come across any. If they do they are most likely sold instantly.

So options are:
1. Wait forever to find a decent used machine by chance.
2. Buy an $8k euro machine.
3. Buy a $1.5k chinese machine.

Option 2 is probably the smart one:
- No time wasted waiting years for a second hand machine.
- No money wasted on China junk.
- Money isn’t wasted on quality if you can afford it.

agree 100%, buying quality if somewhat expensive gear is an investment mostly because there is high demand for second hand quality machines, you can often recoup almost all of your initial outlay, any depreciation is usually well below what a cheap machine, or several, would have cost and then depreciated.
granted, some particular machines are not common, either because they are still in use or get snapped up instantly, however, many woodworking machines are being replaced with modern CNC equipment, and therefore there is a glut of them (panel saws for example), and the value of those is way below replacement and initial cost, but because businesses need the space, and have usually fully written off any depreciation, they will let machines go at a low price.
The other reason you’ll find it difficult to find good secondhand Timber working machines like sanders, spindles, bandsaws, and planers, is because the work that they do is becoming rarer here, everything is cut from sheets of manufactured board, assembled by low paid workers, snd thrown into a container and out. A lot of these timber machines have been scrapped or are sitting in dealers warehouses, many of them have been shipped to second world nations like Indonesia and India, where they are still in use, churning out replication furniture and the like.
A mate of mine took the entire contents of his big woodshop over to Indonesia and set it up there, limitless labour, cheap, he employs an entire village and he lives like a king. There’s a few guys like him over there.