The Ridgid Oscillating Edge Belt Spindle sander is designed for the woodworker.  It has an interchangeable shaft that can host various sizes of spindles, or take those out and it will server as a small oscillating edge sander.  Neat?  Oh yeah.  This machine takes the arm work out of edge sanding and removes machine marks with ease.

What’s Included:

Sander, bed assembly with 4″ x 24″ sanding belt, 1/2″ Sanding sleeve, 3/4″, 1″, 1-1/2″ and 2″ sanding sleeves and drums, drum washers and throat plates, operator’s manual

Ridgid, the company (link):

The company has been around since 1923 and is most well known for it’s fine line of pipe wrenches.  However, more recently the company delve into power tools and made a deal with Home Depot for distribution.  It’s well recognized orange color adorns the tools is a trademark in itself.

Design & Use:

The Ridgid Oscillating Edge Belt Spindle sander performs two functions, as stated obviously in the name — an edge belt sander and a spindle sander. As a woodworkers, you’ll use it to sand rough surfaces, create templates, clean up milling marks, and a variety of other tasks.  This is definitely not a machine for business, but around the home or small shop is a perfect fit.  With it’s toolless conversion from belt to spindle functions, you’ll find it to be no hassle at all and will actually get multiple uses out of this multi-function tool (can’t say that for most of them!).

- Finish – This is where the biggest complaint is going to come from … the finish of the “bed” itself.  It is lined with a gray colored coating, which looks nice but you’ll quickly be irritated by this.  Let me explain: When edge sanding or spindle sanding you’ll be moving boards with the larger, flat side face down (or up) on the table.  This causes friction with the table, which unforunately results in the gray coating wearing and leaving gray smudges all over the face of the board.  Though the gray is removed quickly with the touch of a hand-held sander, it’s rather annoying because it adds an extra step to each, and every board that touches the sander for any length of time.  A better design would have provided for a non-coated bed that didn’t wear, or a better quality coating.

- Power – Though only powered by a 3/8 HP, 5 Amps motor the sander easily sands both hardwoods and softwoods.  However, if you get a bit aggressive and start pushing, it will stall.  Large sanders of this type have larger motors and could handle this excess pressure, but this will will certainly slow, or stall, altogether.  But if you keep pressure steady and work with moderate pressure the sander will keep up well and provide superior results.

- Dust Collection – Using the built-in 2 1/2″ dust port  hooked up to a standard shop dust collector (they’d prefer a Ridgid one, but any will do), you will get pretty good results.  This is a messy machine making dangerous fine dust, so a vacuum is necessary.  Not only will a vacuum keep your shop clean, it will keep the sandpaper clean and less likely to clog and burn.  Overall dust collection is very good.

- Spindle Sanding – Using the round cylinders, which come in sleeve sizes of 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, 1-1/2″, 2″, you will get fast, burn free finishes on edges, faces, contours, inside and outside curves just like they advertise — seriously.  The  The spindles move quick and the oscillating motion eliminates most of the risk for burning.

- Edge Sanding – Using the oscillating edge sander and it’s 4″ x 24″ belt is usually the way to go in my shop.  I find the curved ends to act much like a spindle, with the convenience of the flat edge.  Keep the sandpaper clean and you’ll get some mileage out of each piece.

- Accessory Storage – The carcass is designed with on-board storage for the accessories that come with the machine.  It will hold the drum, throat plates, and washers on the front, and the edge belt mechanism on the back.  This appears to be a good design, but in reality is where some of the design lacks.  The spindles sit loosely at the angle of the base and are not secured in any other way.  This means that when you move this fairly portable tool around, they fall out and roll all over the shop.  More irritating than anything else, it’s a design improvement that would help significantly (in fact, I’ve lost my smallest spindle due to this).

Purchasing Advice:

This is not the first tool any woodworker probably needs in the shop, but the time will come when you’ll find yourself in the market for an edge sander or spindle sander, or both.  When that time comes you’ll scour the market and quickly find that few offer the options of this tool in the $200 price range.  This tool has served me well and is a real pleasure to have in the shop and I would purchase it again.

Images:

The bed of the sander.  You can see the worn areas where the coating has come off (leaving marks on the wood that was in contact with it)

This is a close-up of the worn surface.

This shows the back of the machine where the edge sander attachment rests while using a spindle.

This is a close-up of the edge sander.  Looks like it’s time to clean my sandpaper!

This shows the orange plastic that wills the space unused by the spindle, and beneath where the dust is placed in contact with the vacuum.

With the plate removed, you can see how, and where, dust builds up.  Dust collection is rather good with this machine, but some fine dust will cake inside.

Here you can see where the vacuum connects.

The table tilts 0-48 degrees with detents at most popular angles (0, 15, 22.5, 30, 45).  The soft-coated knobs make the adjustment a breeze.

Here you can see the on-board storage.  The washers and drum adapters fit securely, but the spindles themselves are held in only with gravity and will pop out.

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