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I got an ad today that says, a Rikon belt/disc sander is on sale Friday at Woodcraft. I don't have anything like that. It seems like it would make a mess. I wouldn't pay, $230 for it; but maybe $130.

I can see it for flats on the pegs I'm turning, roughing down saddles and nuts, smoothing out saw cuts. What can you do with the disc part? Square up ends? All the time in shops, I never used sanders much at all; getting burrs off flat stock that you just cut off.

If you have one, do you use it a lot?

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Why be normal?

I have the 6”x48” version. I use it a lot for nut, saddle, taking off a lot of material at once. It’s also really useful for touch up stuff because you can turn the belt by hand and use the disc. Things like putting just the right angle on brace ends, lining, etc…

Precision is not its strong suit for sure and the dust collection is terrible. I ended up putting a big gulp behind it and then vacuuming up after by hand.

Hope that helps.


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Ken,

I’ve had this one for several years: https://rikontools.com/product/model-50 ... sc-sander/

I use it almost daily. I use the disc to flatten a gluing surface. When I’m trying to be precise, I cut outside the line and then sand up to it. The platen for the belt is a graphite pad. I scrape it flat periodically so that I am always sanding to flat on the belt. I do a butt neck joint, so it is very easy to sand in the neck angle on the disc. When I’m fitting a part, it’s pretty easy to touch it to the disk a nip at time until the fit is perfect.

It only has a 2.5” port for dust collection, so a fair amount of dust escapes. For a higher static pressure, I dedicated a shop vac to it and start them with a common switch.

You fiddle guys often scrape where us guitar guys might prefer to sand. I suspect you fiddle guys have a bit more skill. I compensate with bigger tools.

I don’t know about the smaller Rikon sander. I had a Delta 4x36/6 for a while before I bought this sander. It had a steel stamped platen that wasn’t flat. It was very hard to do precision work with it and I upgraded. I don’t know how well the Rikon 4x36 performs, but I am very pleased with my bigger sander.

No, you don’t need it, but you might like it.

I have two and I use them all the time.
-The big one is a Jet 6x48 belt with 12" disc, I fitted a precision miter gauge to the cast iron table for the 12" disc so I can put any angle I want on ends. The 12" disc is big enough to do the ends of necks. I made an attachment for the belt so I can thickness headstocks and put the rounded notch on brace ends. The big belt gets used a lot to flatten rough wood surfaces, clean up rough edges on plywood for jigs and so on.
-The small one is a 2x42" with a 5 or 6" disc. I keep the belt in the vertical position. It runs 120 grit and I use it all the time for small stuff, especially nuts and saddles or when I'm fitting small braces. I also put a jig under the belt to thickness nuts/saddles and other small things.

I can't find the photo of the jig I use to thickness headstocks but if anyone cares I will take a picture and post it tomorrow.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks. I have 3 out of the 4 pegs ready to cut the flats on the heads. I use a chisel first, and then a scraper; a plane blade, or maybe the 3/4 Stanley chisel that sharpens nice. We'll see how that goes on whatever kind of Rosewood they are.

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Why be normal?

I have a Jet 6x48. I use it for a ton of stuff. Template shaping, Nuts and saddles, headstock thicknessing, and using a jig I copied from Charles Fox, putting the radius on head and tail blocks. Many other things too numerous to mention.

The Fox jig is just a piece of MDF with an aluminum edge you clamp to the table and allows you to use it as a template sander.

The little SM nut and saddle vise is great for shaping on the disk.

IMG_3860 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

IMG_3906 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Ken—

I have sanders all over the place. Some thoughts:

1. Instead of a belt/disc combo, I use a Rigid belt/spindle combo. I see one of those in over half of the instrument makers’ shops I have seen. They are just so darn useful, and not that expensive.

2. For disc sanders, I think their usefulness goes way up when you go with either a dedicated disc sander, or a belt/disc combo that is higher quality, like an old Delta or a Powermatic.

3. A 12” stand alone disc sander with a steel disc can be a very precise tool. That’s the biggest you can get before the prices get crazy and the need to go beyond 110v kicks in.

4. Even the little 5” stand alone disc sanders with variable speed are pretty useful, but mostly for very small things like saddles.

Would you like a newish, smallish, budget level belt/disc sander? I’m not crazy about that spot on the price vs. quality spectrum. But I have my preferences, which not everyone shares.

+1 on the Ridgid belt/ spindle sander. It’s a great little tool!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Well, the Rigid belt/spindle sander is on sale at HD for the same price.

I guess it's a no brainer.

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Why be normal?

I have my ShopSmith setup with a 12" disc sander and it is my most used power tool.

I've got an old 4" x 36" craftsman belt sander (with a 6" disc) that's the most used tool in the shop. I rarely use the disc, though.

Also a larger import 6" belt/disc sander.

The table attachment isn't rigid enough for me to use the disc very much on the little one, and the larger one showed up with a broken table.

I would like a nice 12" disc only machine, but haven't tripped over any of those yet.

+1 for the Ridgid oscillating sander. If you have limited floor space like me, this can easily be stored below a bench/on a sturdy shelf and lifted onto the bench when you need to work

There are a lot of custom solutions re: dust collection online. I spent the $40 for a 3d printed solution from Etsy

I have a 5" disc sander that is set up to use the same hook and loop sanding disc as the R O sander.
Had to modify it a little to make room for the thicker disc but it works for me.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I implied it in my post above, but I can be a bit clearer. From my perspective, the disc part of a belt disc combo is the thing that suffers most when a budget level machine is put together. The discs are not great, and the work tables are even worse. When you get up to a higher level of quality, both the belt and the disc can be pretty good, but at the budget level, only the belt seems useful to me. That's why I think a stand alone disc sander is a better idea at the budget level.

I like Kyle's purchased dust catcher! I just bolt the mouth of some 6" plastic pipe (attached to flex hose) to the same anchor point as shown, and it works OK, but I might look into some Etsy options. I recently found a good dust shoe for my CNC spindle on Etsy. It's amazing what one can do with a 3D printer.

I have found the Rigid sander extremely useful as a small thickness sander with a length of aluminum u channel that has been squared off on a granite plate attached to the accessory mount at the back of the unit. Useful for thicknessing nuts and saddle blanks stuck to a straightedge with your favorite type of doublestick tape. Thickness set by clamping the free end to the table

That’s a great idea because it’s so easy to acquire 320, 400 and up belts and easy to change them out. I use the Luthier sanding station and the oscillating spindle sander for that process today but I could totally see switching to this. Thanks, Craig!


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Curious how you prevent the pieces from being pulled into the machine as the belt direction pulls that way? I ask cause I’ve been using that machine as a temp solution and I hate it already, being accustomed to feeding pieces against the belt direction…

I think that’s why he’s showing the fence from the back side. You would be pushing into the belt that way? Maybe, I can’t visualize it ATM.

Going the other way would make it exciting though!!


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Definitely going in the back side, should have mentioned that

I have an old cheap Craftsman Disk/ Belt Combo. I use it a lot for hogging matrerial, for beveling plywood edges and for getting nuts/ saddles close. I also use it power off/ moved by hand to make a swipe, especially on miters. In my shop it's a time saver tool and I'm glad I have it. I would much rather have a 6" x 80" Edge Sander
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzl ... nder/g1140

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Gotcha. I don’t have access to the back of mine so I’ve been going in front ways. It doesn’t have that much grab with 180 paper but you gotta pay attention. I’m only doing brace ends so there plenty of real estate between belt and digits…

I'd sooner use a shooting board with the jobs what the disc would do, as I've never fettled the aluminium disc on my sander, if it's possible atall?
It doesn't sand something flat, and tends to round the piece, no matter how square the table is, so it's a job of flipping the piece over
and being displeased, so I've not bothered using it for anything accurate.
(I'm probably being a bit lazy by not attempting to improve the disc)

Though there is the RPM circumference related factor with this, likely at play too.

The other issues with these combined 6 x 9" belt & disc sanders being,
it's a messy (coughcough, splutter splutter) approach to working, compared to using hand planes when you can instead.
The actual size of the parts one can sand being a very small area,
which means along with said difference/greater speed of the outer portion of the disc,
means it's a constant rather expensive consumable compared.

Now, with the belt, it seems to me you can do a lot more with.
I've only gotten back out to the shed in effort to make it more user friendly.

I imagine it will be very nice to have for cauls and forms, making various radii on long awkward timbers,
Outer curves, as I don't have a Stanley 113 or similar plane, and for concave work, perhaps the end of the drum might be
possible to do the work of a spindle sander, and should it create a hollow profile due to the convex drum profile,
then that won't be the worst thing to have the edges proud, as I've near got the makings for an underpowered spindle sander
should that job by hand get old fast.

Not sure how well this will go, but worth a bash, seeing as the base with splayed legs was an absolute hindrance in my shed,
being way too flimsy and awkward to bother doing the Carl Holmgren thang with.
Will take delight when I can wheel it outta the way, might even be useful with some sorta counter top, for infeed or outfeed,
since the base will be only a bit higher than a chair.

Sorry not got to do an update, not been up to it until recent.

Tom

Benedetto uses the belt and end of the belt judiciously to rough carve the neck and heel in his book. I don't have the skills to attempt that. I do use mine for a lot of things already stated though. It's a 20+ year old Delta floor model.

Funny this should come up now. I just bought a Rikon 6"X48" with a 10" disc today. Mine has cast iron instead of aluminum. It's a lot heavier than I expected. I have the Rigid one, but it's sometimes slow going, I needed more horsepower.
I am DEFINITELY stealing some of the jigs I see posted.
There is (or was) a YT clip of Jean Larrivee taking a band-sawed, one piece neck blank, and have it ready for finish sanding in five minutes using a big belt sander.
I still have to put my Rikon together, (some assembly required,LOL) , so I'll see how it goes from there.

Brent

I know Charlie Hoffman shaped necks on the belt sander and as I recall Tom Ribbecke had a blurb on the same in the old ring binder LMI catalog.

I have never had the guts to try it.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.