Disc Sanders

[Mike Crosa]

Made a sale on E-Bay and the money is burning a hole in my pocket. Want to spend it on a new tool for the shop. I am looking at disc sanders. The Grizzley, Woodcraft and Harbor Freight. Any of you have one and what are the likes and dislikes? I am referring to the 12" disc sanders not the disc/belt combination.

Thanks

[greatdane2]

I have several from small to 12". most came on the side of belt sanders. The only one I use is the 12", I really dislike these style of sanders, and only use it to shape the ends of things. I find that fingers and wood get caught between the disc and the table to often. I have a 6x48 belt sander and find it does as much as the disc but find if I goof the the wood and fingers just move down the belt and off. I do not use a table on the belt and that works ok. I tried the same on the disc sander and I think the speed is a lot higher and I still hit the dust shroud. I tried taking that off and the sawdust flying around made me put it back on.
So now use the belt sanders and very rairly take skin off.
Not the answer you were looking for but this works for me.

Alan.

[Pajaro]

I have a 9 inch disk with the belt sander by Hitachi. I love it, except the fact that I keep hitting my little finger on my left hand on the disk when I'm using it. Ouch. three times now. Maybe I should get me one of those splints for broken fingers to protect my pinkie.

[workin for wood]

A disk is great for sharpening and if you do segmentation as in table saw art or for bowls, it's a must! You need a good large disk and then you make jigs to ensure proper angles for perfect seams. Don't have alot of experience with those machines. My grizzly, the screw comes loose all the time that holds the shaft for the disk in place, it's a pain to tighten, the dust collection is pathetic, and the disk isn't flat.

[greatdane2]

Jeff most hardware or auto stores carry Lock Tite. It is a liquid that you paint on the threads and it locks it up. Use the cleaner first and buy the bottle that you want. some allow it to come apart again with a bit of preasure, some make it impossible to take apart. I stripped the spline on a half shaft rear axle when racing my jeep. I used the good stuff on it so I could get home and bought a ney shaft and hub. We could not get that succer apart. 3 years later when I sold the jeep I just gave the new owner the parts.

Alan.

[JohnB]

G'day Mike,
I can't recommend any of those brands, as I've not used them, but a disk sander can be a handy piece of equipment.
I had a 12" home made one and used it heaps. Great for mitring frames, rounding ends of boards, squaring up cuts and even making wheels.

Unfortunately, the motor on my home made bobbin sander buggered up and I used that a lot more than the disk so it got cannibalised.

[earlinjax]

I have the Harbor Freight and have had no problems. It's big, round and spins. The miter gauge is a piece of junk but have no reservations about it. Got it on sale, plus a 10% off coupon so am very well pleased with the price/quality ratio.

Earl

[Plaquerd]

Wouldn't be without one. Uses have been posted by others.

[Mike Crosa]

From the comments it looks like the Harbor Freight is the one to angle for. When I was looking at the Woodcraft site, they had a Rikon. It had rack and pinion adjustments and positive and negative detents at 0, 22.5 and 45 which seemed like a good idea. Not sure though if this feature warrants the price difference. About $70.00 with no sales.

[workin for wood]

I bet the Rikon is far superior, but can't say that you'll be using the machine enough to need the extra options and probably the extra quality. I don't know what tools you have, what you want to accomplish or how much money you want to spend. A disk sander would be so far down the list for me you'd need the Hubble to find it.