Disc sander?

My sander is completely dead.I was using a sears belt/disc sander and only used the belt,the disc spun to fast for wood.I was thinking of getting a disc sander instead of a combo to do my Wa handles.It looks like delta and jet have some good products.Does anyone have any preference's.

I like Jet's products.
I work my tools way harder than they are supposed to be and the Jet tools hold up really well.

Check out Grizzly. All the major brands are made in the same place or are very similar in appearance. Grizzly is a little less costly than the others and the Grizzly tools I own have given great service.

I would also look at Grizzly but they kill me with the shipping, so I bought mostly Jet and am happy with it, especially with the 5 year warranty... All my handle work gets done on the Jet 6x48 belt and 9" disc sander. Recently bought a 12" Rikon disc sander on sale for $149 but I have to admit, it's still in its box...

Stefan

The BoardSMITH said:

Check out Grizzly. All the major brands are made in the same place or are very similar in appearance. Grizzly is a little less costly than the others and the Grizzly tools I own have given great service.

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I noticed that the jet and grizzly looked the same. Thanx for the info.

Mario -
Don't bother with a single speed sanders. You are a knife maker, hobbyist or not, so get a knife-makers sander. Since you work with expensive stuff, spend a little more, get a variable speed sander, same as you saw at Devin. Don't buy retail - buy the frame from trugrit.com and motor and VFD drive separately. I saved myself $300 over the retail price buying motor and VFD on Ebay, both new. You won't regret it. Get 1HP motor 3450rpm. You can do metal grinding on it too, particularly thinning tangs, flattening spacers, and more.

I made a vertical disk sander same way. Total cost for a motor, a VFD drive and a disk was in the area of $240 shipping included (motor was 3/4HP). All top quality American made products (KB Electronics Drive, Baldor or Leeson motor). Drives can be bought for much less what I paid (I like KB Electronics and Baldor, which KB might be the OEM).

M

However you go about it, go with a variable speed with a foot switch (HF has them for 15.00) I have a Beaumont Metal works 9" variable speed with a 1 deg disc and would be lost without it!!! It is an amazing tool to have in the shop!!!

God Bless
Mike

I'm rocking a variable speed 9" disc sander with the Nielson interchangeable disc set-up with both 1 deg bevel and flat and I'll admit that I need it and wouldn't be without it. I never would have thought that a disc sander could be so valuable for so many different tasks.

I'd like to get another with a table....some day. Right now I have to make due with a 12" Rikon when I need the table.

A slightly out of topic question. At what task do you guys find 1 degree beveled disk useful? I have considered a Nielsen setup, but the cost has been a factor, so I would need to convince myself that it is one of the "must have" tools.

M

Marko Tsourkan said:

A slightly out of topic question. At what task do you guys find 1 degree beveled disk useful? I have considered a Nielsen setup, but the cost has been a factor, so I would need to convince myself that it is one of the "must have" tools.

M

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For me tapering tangs on westerns - extremely efficient grinding to near perfection for this task.

The thing is it's not just having a 1deg bevel disc and flat available it's also the quick change ability that makes the Nielson set up so nice. For instance I use a coarse flat disc to flatten the front of the bolsters square and then I put on a finer flat disc to smooth this out while still remaining square. I used to have to go to a flat plate and sandpaper where as now it's snap and done.

The system is well worth the money in time saved. The only better could be to have multiple grinders set up where no disc changing is required.

Marko,

One thing to consider about the neilson system is that you only save 29 dollars per flat disc and 16 dollars per beveled disc over just buying more full discs from KMG for 83. That savings per disk will take a 9 non beveled discs or about 15 beveled discs to make up for the cost of the hub. I cant image it takes much more time to slide on a new disc on the motor arbor than to use the magnet system. The only bennefit I could see is that the individual neilson discs take up less space than a bunch of full size discs.

That has been my approach so far, but it does clatter your work space unless you come up with a storage solution.

M

I killed a 9" and a 12" disc sander and decided to go industrial. I was fortunate enough to find a 20" 2hp 3ph monster grinder for next to nothing because it had a bad switch. Using a VFD and a remote control navigated me past the need for a rotary switch and makes multi-speed a possibility. What ever you go with, remember that you can always rewire the motor and utilize a vfd. factorymation has the best prices on TECO FM 50's (though some don't like it due to its need for a clean box or nema 4x enclosure.)