Yes it has a platen. However it’s a 15-inch machine not 18. It takes a 16 inch(oscillates) wide belt, is open-ended and you can, by turning a panel around sand a panel up to 30 inches wide.
I have the Bridgewood 15, which is almost Identical to the Grizzly and the Jet. It’s my guess that they all come from the same factory.
I’ve had mine for over 5 years now and have been very pleased with it and the company (Wilke Machinery) I purchased it from. The Bridgewood is more money, currently it sells for 3,395.00 + shipping). I don’t know if there is quality difference in the two machines or not. The higher price of the Bridgewood might reflect the fact that Wilke, before shipping the Bridgewood machines puts the machine in their shop and installs an American made motor in the machine(Baldor in my case). They also run and setup the machine before shipping. Wilke did an excellence job of this and my machine has run perfectly right out of the box and in 5 years + I’ve not had make one single adjustment to it.
You really can and a 30 wide panel with out any wittiness lines down the middle of the panel almost ever time, very occasionally I will get a very small line here and there but the disappears when you polish sand you panel.
Picture of the Bridgewood sanding platen (the flat looking bar between the tow rollers.
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