Help on Edge sanders

[Donald Johnson]

Anybody have comments about edge sanders? I'm looking at the General and Grizzly 89" oscillating edge sanders. What about dust collection? Do these machines spew dust everywhere? Is there any advantage for an oscillating belt? What is the finest grade of sandpaper you can use on these machines? Thanks for your help in advance--Don Johnson

[Terry Hatfield]

Don,

I have the Griz 0512 and I love it!!! I've had no issues at all with the stationary belt. You just move the table to a fresh part of the belt occasionally. I only use 2 grits of paper, 180 and 80. I bought belts from Kilingspor and they are great. I suppose you could use as fine as you wanted but I haven't seen the need for anything finer than 180.

Good dust collection is a MUST!!!!!! A good bag or cartridge filter is a double MUST!!! You have got to have good flow to get the dust and certainly have to have excellent filtering to keep it caprured. These things make a ton of super fine dust!! I ran 6" all the way to mine and then reduced to the factory 4" port. It works great for edge sanding but leaves a bit to be desired if you are using the end of the belt as a spindle sander. You are just too far away from the port for it to do much good.

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I really debated for a long time before making this purchase. I wasn't sure how much I would really use the edge sander. Let me tell you, I use it all the time and I certainly would not want to be without it now that I'm used to having it.

I have a full review of the Griz on my site if you would like to check it out.

t

[Perry Holbrook]

Take a look at Bridgewood as well. I've got the 3HP 6x108 oscillating machine. It can be operated as a vertical or horizontal belt, which really helps at times. I use it every day and am very satisified. The oscillating feature IMHO is a must if you do much heavy sanding. It greatly increases belt life. Klingspor makes my belts starting with planer grits 40, 50 & 60. I use grits up to 220. I do a lot of shaping with this machine.

I modified the 4" dust port to a full 6" port a couple of weeks ago. The improvement was well worth the effort.

Most people are surprised by how much you can do with these machines.

Perry

[Steve Clardy]

I have the Jet 6x89. I couldn't do without it in my work.

[Keith Outten]

Donald,

I recently purchased a cheap edge sander at one of the traveling tool shows. The machine doesn't even have a company name on it or any kind of identification. My edge sander appears to be exactly like the Grizzley model that Terry has in his shop based on the specs in the Grizzley catalog. I had a really tough time deciding to purchase an unknown machine, normally I prefer to stay with the brand names and purchase equipment that has a proven track record. I decided to take a chance and my reasoning was that I own a metal lathe and mill so I could easilly fix the edge sander if necessary. These are simple machines, it really gets down to tracking, if they track properly they tend to do the job and are great machines to use. My sander was $250.00 and worked perfectly right out of the box so I'm very happy that I decided to take the chance.

Absolutely the best sanding machine I have ever had in my workshop. I wouldn't trade it for any other type, an edge sander is the most versitile and productive abrasive machine I have ever owned. Terry is right about using the end of the belt for spindle sanding, it works well enough but there is little or no dust collection at the end. My DC exhausts directly outside so my 4" pipe works well and collects almost every spec of dust when edge sanding.

[Alan Turner]

Don,
I have the Wooktek 6 x 89, and it is fine. DC is not the best. I run ZA belts, and they last quite well. I don't use it that much, being a neander and all.
Alan

[nic obie]

I've got the Grizzly model and don't know how I got by without it.

The dust collection was OK using a 5" duct to the factory 4" outlet but improved considerably after I added a piece of sheet metal to the back of the machine in order to more enclose the sanding belt.