Griz Baby 12" sander

[Rick Runyon]

Hey hey hey and hi. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with the new Grizzly 12" benchtop sander? Kinda wondering if this would be a good investment since I do not have room or $ for a 10/20 or bigger belt sander. Thanx for your feedback. Rick:)

[Randy Cox]

Rick, if your talking about the Grizzly Baby drum sander, I have owned this for about 3 months now. Haven't got to use it as much as I would like, but for what I wanted if for, it is the best. I wanted to be able to sand small thin pieces for inlay, marquetry, and for small shaker boxes and such. It works perfect for this. I have found that you can sneak up on a thickness very easily by not changing the thickness setting and just rerunning the piece throught the sander. It seems that the belt that carries the piece throught the sander flexes some and you can use this to your advantage to slowly sneak up on a thickness. I also can sand down to about a 1/16" even thought is says 1/8' in the specs. I love mine.

Randy

[Bob Lang]

I reviewed the sander in the June 2006 issue of Popular Woodworking. I liked it and think it's an excellent value for the money. The sandpaper is held to the drum with velcro, which is what compresses a little as you send the work through the machine. This makes it a little dificult to hit a precise thickness, but the trade off is you can send a piece through a second time and take off a few thousandths, and it greatly reduces the burning you can get with a more rigid attachment to the drum. I've heard that the price will be going up significantly after the first of the year.

Bob Lang