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I got this sander a couple of weeks ago. Weight is good. It arrived in two boxes. The sander itself was well protected and completely undamaged.
I almost bought the 1 1/2 hp model but am glad I didnt. The dust collection compared to my old Craftsman is wonderful. The graphite plate behind the belt was dead flat. This has all the power I need. It made a mess for the first minute or two but is fine now. I used it fot a while before writing this.
No sander is clean but this one isnt bad. If you get one like this one you cant go wrong. One box had slight damage. Set up was simple except for the weight of the thing.
The last item was the casters.they should be heavier duty. Second.I need a machine that I can quickly change belts, as I will go thru 4-5 differant grits in a 10 minute period. There were a couple of reasons for this. If I had kept the machine I would have changed them out for Gizzly 3" locking casters.If none of these are important to your use, I would recommend this sander. This piece is an intregal part of the tracking system and must remain on the machine when sanding. Don't get me wrong here, this is a real good machine.
But I had to return it and replace it with the Shop Fox G4790(see separate review). Changing the belt on this machine involves removing parts.too slow. Very heavily built, excellant finish, and very quiet. I need a machine that I can sand/shape large radius on. It's a nice machine and I wish I could have kept it. The dust collection is great, it has plenty of power and tracks well.
First you cannot remove the end piece from the belt sander and sand on the radius.
Plenty of power, smooth operation and the vaccuum system is helpful in dust removal. Worked fine if one used a hand to set the lock. Purchased in February 2004 to replace a smaller sander that wore out after 15 years. Only negative was in the foot lever to lock the wheels which bent if I engaged the lock with a foot. This flimsey locking mechanism should be improved. I was impressed with the quality of the machine. Tracking was easily set up and has stayed true.
MOTOR , BUT SOON FOUND OUT THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM. WAS A LITTLE SKEPTICLE AT FIRST BECAUSE OF THE SMALLER H.P. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS UNIT. IT IS MY FIRST JET PRODUCT AND I AM VERY SATISFIED WITH THE QUALITY AND OPERATION.
Not a big deal though.Dust collection is better than I expected. It runs smooth, though the graphite platen behind the belt sander it somewhat noisy. It was fairly easy to square everything up and set the stops. The fit and finish was excellent.
Bits of the graphite material get all over the place for about the first 15 mins of use but that seems to have taken care of itself.I found the belt a little tough to adjust as to maintain a given lateral position on the rollers. The value is hard to beat, if not impossible to beat. I find that the sander is very stable on the open stand. It gives me extra storage with a shop-made plywood shelf and saved me a few bucks. I bought this sander from Tool Crib a few months ago. It wasn't on the Amazon.com site at the time.I went with the open stand because I wanted some storage below. This is my first belt sander so that might just be due my lack of familiararity with the machine.The sander has ample power. It's not flimsy at all.
The belt table seems to be pressed from heavy sheet metal but has worked fine for me. There are sliding panels in the rear of the sander to direct the collection from either the disk or belt sander area. Though the closed stand does look nice I though function was more important.I recommend this sander highly. I have a 1-1/2 HP Delta dust collector located about 15 feet from the sander and the combination seems to do a good job at keeping the sanding dust down.Other than the preceeding minor issues, I think this is a great sander. I have yet to get it to bog down on pine, maple or white oak. I thought this was good idea.
Not sure if that's an option thru Amazon.com.The sander was easy to set up. Though on the belt table, I had to leave a little extra gap between the belt and the table because when you tighten the table locks, it seems to pull the table toward the belt. The disk table is machined cast iron and well built. It seems to have quieted a bit with more use. The tables are very good.
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