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What do you use your edge sander for?

2/5/16       
JeffD

One of the few machines still on my 'list' is a decent oscillating edge sander.....though I'm not sure if it should be anymore? I've run my own shop for 14 years now without having one, and never used the one we had at the shop I worked in before that. Every once in a while I'll see one available but the timing just isn't right. There's another one coming available soon and I'm thinking about bidding on it but wondering if I really need it? The obvious answer is if I haven't needed it yet then no.....but on the other hand, I got by for years without a Festool track saw and now I consider it indispensable! So what do you guys use your edge sanders for.....or are they just collecting dust:)

JeffD

2/6/16       #2: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Leo G  Member

Website: http://www.lrgwood.com

Said the same thing when I got mine. I got it for sanding door edges. Now I use it for tons of stuff. Wood, Metal, Plastic, jigs, screws etc. One of the more useful tools in my shop.

2/6/16       #3: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
D Brown


I have an older Rodgers combo profile / edge sander . I mostly sand shelf faces edges and break sharp corners , doors and some stiles before assembling face frames.
The wheel on the end is great for radius works and such.

2/6/16       #4: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Dustin orth Member

Website: http://customwoodmontrose.com

We use our oscillating sander for drawer boxes after assembly, makes quick work of that. Also doing the odd part that got run on a saw and going right into a finished piece. The face frame edges get run on it when they are exposed, that way my edges only need a little touch up with a random orbit. Handy to have around, wish mine had a wider belt on it though.

2/6/16       #5: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
B.H. Davis  Member

Website: http://www.curvedmouldings.com

We use ours so much we put in a dedicated dust collector for it. I bought a new General from their import line about 10 years ago. Wouldn't be without it.

We edge sand straight boards and mouldings, outsides of all our curved mouldings and butt ends of all our segments before machining the joints.

BH Davis

2/6/16       #6: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Larry

Ours runs 9" belts and gets used for lots of misc. stuff. The end roller gets used on curved work. Quick taper, break edges, round corners, etc. Very handy.

2/7/16       #7: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Edi Silva  Member

Website: silvawoodworking.com

We use ours a lot, specially fitting doors on inset cabinets, 90% of our cabinets are inset. Plus we edge sand all the door parts prior to run on the shaper, makes a nice clean surface ready for finish, specially on shaker doors. Plus we use for other parts as well,We got so used to it, i don't know what to do without it.

2/7/16       #8: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
JeffD

OK so you guys are starting to convince me, curved stuff would certainly be a benefit, I do that on a 15" disc sander right now but obviously it has it's limitations. I do have a couple more questions...

I've always thought it might be good to use one for door edges, but how do you manage to keep everything straight and square? Seems like they would remove material so quickly it would be very easy to sand a bit too much and cause more problems?

Also pretty much same question to BH Davis....how do you manage to run long edges for boards and moldings etc and keep everything perfectly straight? I've seen the edge sanders that work kinda like a jointer but those are well North of $10k and well out of my budget.

thanks,
Jeff

2/7/16       #9: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Edi Silva  Member

Website: silvawoodworking.com

Jeff
I always build my doors tight fit to the opening and use the edge sander to remove the material and leave 3/32" review all around, we use 150 grit all the time. My FF is always square, and if keep my reviews consistent, my doors will be square as well. We got so used it to the machine that i don't think we ever remove more than the necessary.

2/7/16       #10: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Larry

There is a natural tendency for parts to pull for deeper sanding @ one end. Use your finger and a pencil to quickly make a guide line for parts you are trying to size. Make a table stop @ 90 degrees (& any other < you often need.) This is our current sander: Grizzly Model G9985, 3 hp 682 lb. Made in Taiwan, Belt size – 9 x 138 ½” Belts ordered from Uneeda. The same sander is sold under the PowerMatic name for about $1K more. The good: long table, end table, easy raise & lower of table, easy belt tracking, plenty of power. The not so good: end table could use better hold for angle, only 1/2" of oscillation, the screen on the dust collection guard is too fine and plugs but you can easily fix that. I made a hook to keep a wrench on for when belts are changed and you need to adjust the tracking. We've had it 8 or 10 years now, no problems.

2/7/16       #11: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Kevin Jenness

You do have to use a light touch to avoid oversanding as most edge sanders run well upwards of 3000 ft/min, 2 to 3 times the speed of a hand-held belt sander. A 3 phase unit could benefit from a VFD to slow things down. A shop near me has one set up that way, and can sand cherry end grain at 220# without burning with the VFD dialed way back.

2/8/16       #12: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Hen Bob Member

Ours gets used daily just like all the other guys.. We have a grizzly one that oscillates and a Crouch one that dose not.

The American made Crouch is a far superior machine to the grizzly. Keep searching for a nicer one than the grizzly.. My 2cents

2/9/16       #13: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
JR Rutter Member

I really like my SCMI/Samco Unilev. Tracking is with old school air jet and tracking never needs adjsutment belt-to-belt. One side is open like a jointer with a small adjustable platen instead of cutterhead and we run drawer edges and other long parts with a feeder. The open side has 6" height capacity, though you can also find them in 8". The table is fixed to the frame and the entire sanding platen assembly adjusts vertically. Oscillation speed and amount is adjustable. We run ours on the slower of the dual belt speeds, about 10m / sec.

2/10/16       #14: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Adam

As the other guys have mentioned. The edge sander is a key tool if you want to make high quality inset door cabinets in a reasonable amount of time. Once you have the sander. It will get used for all kinds of other stuff. The cheap Taiwanese ones seem to do fine. Definitely get an oscillating one.

2/10/16       #15: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
JeffD

Thanks guys, so I guess I'll keep the edge sander on my 'list' for now.

I do a fair amount of inset doors but currently don't use any sanders to size them. I build them slightly oversized then trim the length on my tablesaw and fine tune the edges on my jointer. I have a 2nd jointer set up to just barely remove any material which makes for a clean edge that's easy to sand. A sander would definitely make things go quicker, as long as I can do them and maintain a nice clean, square, and straight edge.

thanks!
JeffD

2/11/16       #16: What do you use your edge sander fo ...
Adam

JeffD,

Sell the 2nd joiner. Buy the a oscillating belt sander that has a belt long enough to 95% of your door lengths. Buy good belts made by Klingspor or the like. 150 grit is perfect.

You will be kicking yourself after the first job. You can size them faster, more accurately on the sander and then there is no sanding. No real way to damage the door, as we all have doing the jointer trick.

I always take the time to put a nice melamine table on top of the cast iron one. Make it bigger to support the doors. I use 5/16 flat head countersunk allen screws and drilled and tapped the table.

Likewise make it big enough to support 95% of your door sizes. Continous wood backstop that is absolutely square to belt is key. It gives you reference for how out of square you are making things. It is also good for squaring up overlay doors.

Many of these sanders come with different size round drums for doing curved work.


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