New Arrival in the shop-(also a small gloat)

[John Renzetti]

I've always wanted one of these. Picked it up at the shipping terminal last Thursday. This is a compact oscillating edgesander made by Houfek of the Czech Republic. I was originally going to buy the Ritter 913 but it was just too big for the shop. Plus the Ritter reps were downright rude when I tried to get info from them at the IWF last year. This was at the AFWS show this year at the Adwood booth. I'm planning to put it on casters so I can move it out of the way when not in use.
take care,
John

[Corey Hallagan]

Wow that is a piece of equipment now. Congrats and enjoy!

Corey

[Richard Wolf]

Nice looking machine. Best of luck with it.

Richard

[Bruce Page]

Very nice machine John! I have never heard of anyone regretting purchasing an edge sander. I've been kicking around getting the PM Model 80 for months, I want one, I just don't have any place to put it! Now if I had your space...:D

[Chris Padilla]

Gee, that belt's already dirty!! ;) Nice looking pice o' machinery...what are the rough dimensions?

[Jim Becker]

That's a nice looking machine, John. I really do need to make a little field trip down to see your stuff...actually, what are you doing late Wednesday afternoon as I need to be "half-way there" for an uncharacteristicly local customer meeting? Hit me with an email or PM if you are going to be "around"...:p

[Rob Russell]

Oh come now John, the only reason you chose that sander is 'cuz the blue looks good with your Format-4 saw! :D

I'll be interested to know what you think of the sander once you've had a chance to use it for awhile. Sanders (edge and wide belt) are probably the next machines I'll be going after.

Good luck with the new machine!

Rob

[John Renzetti]

Gee, that belt's already dirty!! ;) Nice looking pice o' machinery...what are the rough dimensions?

Hi Chris, I wired it up and tried it out right away, unfortuneately the dust collection wasn't hooked up. Not a smart thing on my part. Dimensions are about 52L by 24W. I was looking also at a couple of them that were about 72"L and just couldn't fit them in.
take care,
John

[John Renzetti]

That's a nice looking machine, John. I really do need to make a little field trip down to see your stuff...actually, what are you doing late Wednesday afternoon as I need to be "half-way there" for an uncharacteristicly local customer meeting? Hit me with an email or PM if you are going to be "around"...:p

hi Jim, I'm off all this week. (Just starting the pre-retirement drawdown. I'll email you directions, phone, numbers etc.
talk to you later,
John

[leonard sanders]

Hello John what do you mean pre retirement..I am do the same in feb

[Jamie Buxton]

John --
Would you explain to me what an edge sander is used for? They're always struck me as a very specialized, large, and expensive device. In my shop, edges generally have been jointed, or at least come off a table saw, so that sanding the edge requires just a little work with a hand-held ROS. The ROS costs $70, and works well enough. An edge sander costs thousands. It'd have to do something way better, or way faster, wouldn't it?

Jamie

[J.R. Rutter]

Nice! Where did you get it?

I need a compact edge sander for cabinet doors. Just passed on a nice older Ritter 700 because it took up too much room :-(

[John Hart]

.... Plus the Ritter reps were downright rude when I tried to get info from them at the IWF last year....John

I hope the Ritter reps see this post.:D congratulations John. Way over MY head (and wallet)

[John Renzetti]

Leonard, How are you doing? Still at RedRiver? I officially retire from flying at the end of July '06. I'm starting to draw down all my accrued leave, and at two weeks per month, I'll be easing into retirement.

Jamie, I don't know what it is used for, I just bought it for the reason Rob Russell mentioned-the color matches my Felder Format machines. :) Seriously, I'll use the spindle sander part a lot for sanding curved workpieces. The longer edgesanding part will come in handy for styles and rails, where I use the ROS now. I've already used it for touching up the edges of the phenolic inserts I make for the Felder 700 saws.

J.R. Got this machine from Adwood in NC. They bring in the bigger widebelts. I first saw the Houfek at the 2004 IWF. The importer was some company in RI. I couldn't get any info out of them. I started to check my deoderant since I got ignored by Ritter also that same day. I know Adam Lopuk at Adwood and he told me that they would bring one to the Vegas show and if there was enough interest they would sell it along with the widebelts. I bought the one they had at the show. It's compact. The literature says it weighs 330lbs, but the shipping document showed a shipping weight of 750lbs. The pallet and crate were heavy but not that heavy.

John H. I was absolutely set on the Ritter and was going to buy it at the show. I've talked to John Elvrum who was the GM a number of times at shows. The reps at the booth at the IWF just didn't seem to want or care about getting my order. It's probably best since I would have had to shoehorn that thing into the shop.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Congrats on the new sander! I have always thought they would be a handy addition. From the looks of the belt, you have tried it out well! :)

[Steve Clardy]

Congrats on the new purchase. Edge sanders are very handy.
I have the Jet 6x89, used almost daily. Couldn't hardly do without it now.
I use it mainly for door and drawer front edge sanding.

[Doug Jones from Oregon]

John, nice looking sander.

I'm curious about what you think of the replacement belt situation? I have a PM13 that takes about 15 minutes to change out a belt on due to the amount of sheetmetal that needs to be removed. I often times need to change belts 3-4 times in a day if we have a lot of parts to sand and it adds up.

I'm also interested in the table elevation on yours. On mine I can't get to the bottom inch of the belt and I can't get to the top 1.5"...I mostly edge sand .75 in stock.

Other than these issues, I'm happy with the tool...it does do what it was designed to do.

Doug

[Steve Clardy]

John, nice looking sander.

I'm curious about what you think of the replacement belt situation? I have a PM13 that takes about 15 minutes to change out a belt on due to the amount of sheetmetal that needs to be removed. I often times need to change belts 3-4 times in a day if we have a lot of parts to sand and it adds up.

I'm also interested in the table elevation on yours. On mine I can't get to the bottom inch of the belt and I can't get to the top 1.5"...I mostly edge sand .75 in stock.

Other than these issues, I'm happy with the tool...it does do what it was designed to do.

Doug
Well I'm not John, but what I do on my Jet is to clamp a 3/4 board on the table. I can then get the full use of the belt. And even though these are directional belts, I turn mine over the get the full use of the belt. Never had one to come apart by reversing the direction of it.

[Jeff A. Smith]

I always post this when I see someone with a new edge sander...

Please be very careful in using it. It's highly useful, and you'll find yourself using it for all kinds of things you never imagined, including sanding short, small pieces. When doing this, it's real easy to have the piece "catch" on the belt and then find your fingers doing business with the belt. (The fingers never come out good in that transaction.)

I've had two "lotsa blood, but not truly serious" accidents in my shop, and both times, it's been on the edge sander.

My main advice is this... If you sand short or narrow pieces that orient your fingers close to the belt, be sure your fingers point "downstream" from the belt... so that if your wood disappears and goes sailing, your fingertips don't push into the belt, but rather "go with" the belt.

Going against the belt will literally knock your fingertips off.

This is a relatively benign looking machine, but like I said -- two accidents in my shop, and they've both been on my edge sander.

Of course, it's not possible that any of my accidents were due to my own lack of knowledge or expertise -- no way -- it was the machine's fault!!! ;)

Also... I'm still waiting on my phase converter for my shop!!

Jeff Smith
Athens, AL