12" disc sander?

[John Myers]

I'm thinking about getting the Jet 12" disc sander - benchtop model. Initial use is planned for rounding corning of small wood boxes. These boxes would be simply made from one solid piece of wood with the center routed out (ie; pen boxes, trinket boxes, etc).

Would this be the correct tool to use? What else is a disc sander useful for?

John

[Robert Waddell]

John,
You can do that with a disc sander but remember you will have to sand out the swirled scratch marks it leaves. I like an oscillating edge sander for this purpose because it leaves no further sanding if you use a fine enough grit.
Rob

[Tim Marks]

The Jet 12" seems like the best of the bunch to me; definitely excels in dust collection vs the others. One thing to watch is that the little mounting feet can be delicate and are frequently broken in shipping (you can frequently buy the broken ones on ebay for cheap).
Inspect yours carefully on arrival.

I researched and bought the Jet 12" and some sanding disks about 3 years ago... Amazon backordered it for about 3 months and I ended up cancelling my order. Still have the sanding disks though :D. Shortly after that I bought a G0653 edge sander and never looked back.

[Dave Lehnert]

John,
You can do that with a disc sander but remember you will have to sand out the swirled scratch marks it leaves. I like an oscillating edge sander for this purpose because it leaves no further sanding if you use a fine enough grit.
Rob
What brand of edge sander do you have?

[David Tiell]

I picked up the Jet 12" benchtop disc sander last month, and have been quite impressed with it. The motor turns a fan for dust collection with quite a lot of air pressure to help dust move on out. It comes with two slots in the table, one parallel and one perpendicular to the disc. And it comes with a a miter gage (granted, a cheap one, but it can be used) and a circle attachment. I was absolutely amazed at how quiet the thing is! If you're looking for a benchtop disc sander, I would recommend the Jet in a heartbeat. But it doesn't quite sound like what you are looking for, unless you just want to use it for close rough shaping, then finish sanding either by hand or with an ROS.

[Doug Shepard]

I use the heck out of the disc sander on my disc/belt combo but for what you want it for, I dont think it's the best tool. The grain direction is most often going to be opposite of the disc direction and you'll get cross-grain scratches. An edge sander would be better, or even a vertical belt if you make a pivoting holding fixture to swing it in an arc.

[John Myers]

I see what you mean. An edge sander is the way to go for this sort of thing. Ouch! The price of the lowest ones are about $1,000!

[Paul Joynes]

The Rigid oscillating spindle sander has a belt attachment and is only $200. In general, it gets good reviews for a piece of equipment at this price point.

Paul

[Doug Shepard]

Not a big Rigid fan but that unit might work pretty good for what you need. Dont rule out a regular belt sander either. If you can clamp or rig one up on it's side and bring the work up to it sideways.....

[Bill Ryall]

The Rigid oscillating spindle sander has a belt attachment and is only $200. In general, it gets good reviews for a piece of equipment at this price point.

Paul

I have one. Not an industrial quality machine, but mine has served me well. It may be just the thing you are looking for for your stated purpose.

[John Myers]

Thank you all for the advice. I'll take a look at the Ridgid. That might be the way for me to go. I don't need to do a lot of sanding, just something to round corners.

Has anyone else used the Ridgid Edge sander?

John

[Bill White]

Have the Ridgid. Use it. Would buy it again.
Bill

[Ralph Lindberg]

John
Slightly cheaper then the Jet (which is a nice unit) is WoodWorkers Supply WoodTek model 958-357
Some thing else I looked at was their 12inch disc/48 inch belt sander model 923-810

[Cary Falk]

I have the Ridgid and use it often. It works really well.

[JayStPeter]

I have the Jet and it's a great tool. I can't say if it's the right tool for your purposes. I can say that if you plan to use it to sand through grits in your application it isn't good for that. But for roughing the type of roundovers you are talking about, I use it often for that. I'd rather have a big edge sander, but space and money don't allow that.

[Art Mann]

I also own and endorse the Ridgid as an excellent hobbiest tool. It is both a belt sander and a spindle sander. I have used a 12" disk sander and I can't think of an application where the Ridgid wouldn't work as well or better. You certainly can't do the work of a spindle sander with a disk. From what I understand about your intended use, the Ridgid would be ideal.