Love the Ridgid oscillating belt/spindle sander

[Chris_B]

Based on comments here I picked-up the Ridgid Oscillating Sander (EB4424) at the BORG today (Hey, I 'needed' something extra to push me over $600 for the gift card... ).

This thing is really sweet. The dust collection sucks (pun intended), and the paint on the table scratches easily, but overall this tool is *very* well engineered. Swapping the belt for the drum is fast and tool-free, and all the accessories are securely mounted on the base.

I was working on a bookends-type project tonight with some strange curves and odd angles, and this made short work of creating exact mirrored pairs with perfect 90 degree edges. I am very impressed.

Chris

[scmhogg]

Chris,

I've had mine for a couple of years now and still use it all the time. Tom Miller designed a brilliant jig for sharpening chisels that I stole.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...t=rigid+chisel

I found fine grit belts on ebay that allow you to cut down on the honing time with Tom's jig.

Don't let the belts fray. I did and it took me hours to pick the threads out of the drive shaft.

Steve

[Chris_B]

Thanks for the link and the suggestions! I'll give that a try. It looks simple and clever.

What grit do you use for sharpening? I found 400 on eBay but is this fine enough? Any other tips?

Chris

[Ken Weaver]

I really like mine as well - use it a lot more than I thought I would.

[Luckbox]

Just got mine a couple of weeks ago but haven't had I chance to try it out. From all the reviews I have read I might just need to get a bit of scrap and sand something.

[drumpriest]

I like mine a lot. Best deal on a spindle sander out there, I think.

[sacherjj]

I love how it is self contained (all the tubes stay in place when the table is down). It is alos light enough that you don't have to have a permanet location for it. Just lift it up on the work bench, and put away when you are done.

[scmhogg]

Chris,

I use the 400 grit, then I switch to my glass plate and finer grits to 2000, using the "scary sharp" method.

Steve

[Whit]

Spindle/belt sander

I don't mean to rain on the parade. I got one about 10 days ago for a specific project, to sand the edges of segments for segmented turning. The belt sander leaves irregular surfaces that do not fit together. So, for my purposes it does not work. The disk sander leaves the edges flat. Am I doing something wrong with the belt sander?
Whit

[scmhogg]

Whit,

The Rigid Osc. Belt and drum sander does not have a disk. The Rigid has a vertical belt that goes up and down.

Steve

[sacherjj]

I think he meant that when using a disc, the edges are perfect, but they are not with the belt. There feels like a center plate that the belt rides on and I've been able to get pieces flat enough for my work on that. I could see how not hitting that exactly could cause problems. However, I haven't tried to reach the accuracy of gluing for segmented turning. The thing I like over the disc is that all areas sand at the same rate and there are no radial sand marks.

[mater]

I was working on a bookends-type project tonight with some strange curves and odd angles, and this made short work of creating exact mirrored pairs with perfect 90 degree edges. I am very impressed.

Chris

You should get a lot of good use out of the sander. I use mine more than I thought I would.

[Whit]

spindle/belt sander

I did not fully explain about my comments about the disk sanding. I sanded one side of the segments on the Rigid oscillating belt sander and the segments did not fit together tight. The segments were held against the built in stop
I sanded the other side of each segment on a Shopsmith 12" disk sander and the segments fit together with no gaps.
Sorry for the confusion.
Whit

[Stytooner]

I did not fully explain about my comments about the disk sanding. I sanded one side of the segments on the Rigid oscillating belt sander and the segments did not fit together tight. The segments were held against the built in stop
I sanded the other side of each segment on a Shopsmith 12" disk sander and the segments fit together with no gaps.
Sorry for the confusion.
Whit

To get good results from this, you will need better belts.
A little known fact when adjusting the table for flatness, there are two set screws under each outer wing of the table that are stops. I have just bought my third sander. I sand a lot of steel and this isn't good on these. It would be okay if I were using the suction as well, but I don't want to risk getting a spark in all my aluminum and plastic dust in my collection barrel.
You may also need a finer belt for detail work. I only buy mid grade and high grade 80 grit belts. I have these in varying degrees of newness. If I need to sharpen something, I have a nice high grade belt that has been worn well by steel. Probably about 300 grit now. Works very well.
I have the opposite opinion on disc sanders. I could never get parts to come out evenly. The larger they are, the better they are, but then cost and time to replace the abrasive come into play.
I'll continue to buy these Ridgids.

I now have two motors that are in need of a reworking. Think I'll just check with a motor shop to see what they can do. A new motor is $171.15 online plus shipping. New machine is $199 locally, no shipping. Pretty much a no brainer there.


PS. What I have found abut the built in stop on these is that it doesn't stop stuff on the platten. If you are sanding narrow stuff, you should add a little block to the end of the stop. This will put you on the platten fully and should result in some dead flat sanded parts.
They should have made this stop about 1/2" longer.