Sandflee

[Little flower]

In an earlier post on Sanders, Dale responded to a question asking if anyone had any experience on using the sandflee by saying:

Well, as for the sand flee, Ive seen it demoed quite a few times, but I havent first handedly use it.Im hoping to win one with a scrollsaw pattern i designed for the contest, but thats just dreaming! Anyways, At a scrollsawing event in WI after I scrolled out somthing in the saw corral, I took it over to Bob Raffo (the guy selling and demoing the sand flea), and had him run it across the sander a few times, and it worked great for that.Even the finest fretwork I've seen sanded on the flea. It is pretty much a finishing sander type tool, and works good for what its intended for in that aspect.

Has anyone else had some experience with this? I am finding my oscillating sanders are affecting my arms badly - but they finish the work so nice! I have decided to find out what other options are out there now before I risk any more damage to myself. I haven't seen these in New Zealand but the old saying still fits.... 'where there's a will, there's a way'.

[Woodbutcher68]

I've seen them demo'd at shows and also considered buying one until I got a great price on a Performax 10-20 drum sander due to a misprint in an ad a couple of years ago and have been very happy with it. It did eat part of a plaque I finished last night, but I put a little too much pressure on it so it wasn't the machines fault.

[Gill]

Mia was very unhappy when she recently bought a Sand Flee. The customer service didn't perform much better than the machine itself and she noted the whole sorry tale in the thread, Caveat Emptor!.

Based on her experiences, I wouldn't go anywhere near a RJR Studio product.

Gill

[lucky788scroller]

I still do think for surface sanding finely detailed fretwork pieces it works very nice. I would though also say that with a sander such as a Performax sander, sanding your wood real good before you spend all those hours scrolling it is a much better idea, but I can also see the benefits of a sand flee.Other than Mias experience, I havent heard any other complaints that I can think of. I'm sure there must be some surface sanders available in kiwi-land, and also someone posts a link to a shop built sander similar to the sand flee once in a while, hopefully they will post it on this thread as well. Dale

[workin for wood]

I have to agree that the sand flee has it's place. I had dinner with Mr Raffo and he's a pretty nice guy and quite a funny character. I'm not convinced that it's worth the price, because you can buy a small Steel City drum sander for the same price, and a few more dollars moves you into a Delta. I do understand as he was telling me that this machine is all made in america, and so the cost is higher, and I sure appreciate that, but as much as he might try, it can't compare to a drum sander. Those of us that do have drum sanders however, may notice that when he is using his sand flee, he is running very small items at a very fast pace removing very little stock at a time. There is a limit as to how small a piece of wood can be for a drum sander, where the sand flee can handle much smaller pieces. If you are making very small boxes, like 6" or smaller, or lots of really small frets, then the sand flee is more beneficial. If you make alot of larger projects, beyond 6 or 8 inches, and have a lot of figured wood that needs to be cleaned up, you need a drum sander.
The key to the sand flee is exactly like Dale says though..it's just for very fine light sanding. Keep it to what it's intended for and you should be happy with it.

[Rolf]

I have had mine for a couple of years now and use it frequently. Most of my fretwork is small delicate ornaments (Volker Arnold designs) approx 5" round in 1/16 Finish Birch. With a custom sanding block that I made to keep things flat I do a couple of passes over 220 grit paper on the Sand flee. I am very pleased with how it works in this application. It takes off most of the fuzzies and saves me a great deal of time. I also pre-sand my wood on it. Also useful to flatten the back after drilling all of my entry holes. As with most of my tools they all have their purpose.
Mia's experience was very unfortunate and I would like to think that it was an anomaly and not the norm.
For my applications a drum sander would be overkill, plus I have no more room. As far as the price goes, well he uses a high quality Baldor motor, ball bearings. thick gauge stainless, and quality components, I don't think his profit margin is all that great.
This is just my opinion about a tool that I own. I do NOT have any connection with RJR nor am I promotting him or his product in any way.

[Jediscroller]

I guess I'm in the other camp. I just don't see a use for one of these in my shop. I've heard of several folks getting their fingers caught between the drum and the table (including during a demo which I thought was kind of funny). I have a friend who loves hers but is still hoping her nail grows back (she is one of the folks who's finger got caught). I'll stick with a drum sander and ROS for my sanding needs.

[Artistry in Wood]

Try Here http://www.stockroomsupply.com/V_Drum_Sander.php

They have a lot of unique products.

~Andrew

[Mike Crosa]

I bought a sand flee on Ebay and have been very happy with it. As others say it sands fret work very nicely and safely. I am trying to think how someone could catch their finger in it and can only surmise that perhaps they had the drum set to high or the table to low? As I understand it, the only thing that should be above the table is the grit of the paper. I have also used it as a jointer on some pieces and it works great. Customer service is unfortunately not one of the strong suits of RJR. I have had a call into them for over a month with no return call.

Mike C

[Little flower]

Thanks for all the help. Appreciate the commments. I found RJR's site and watched the video - sounded quite good and then I found out the price. Whoops! Far to costly for me. I could buy another good scrollsaw for that much! Anyway, I'll find a way around my current problems one way or other and the other may be saving my finished pieces up for hubby to sand on the days I'm having trouble. After all, that's what hubby's are for, isn't it?