Benchtop Spindle Sander

whiteeugene

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know how well Benchtop Spindle Sander works on finger holds? I'm sure it works well on scales but not sure how it would preform on steel. If you have any thought or ideas please share them with me. I have been using a drum sander in my drill press but after getting my finger between the blade and it I decided I needed to find something different. I have been looking at the Small wheel attachment but that would mean changing tool arms every time I need to cleanup a small radius finger hold.

Thanks
 
I had a bench top spindle sander . It didn't last long. It had a flexible sort of drive that I didn't know about until I had trouble with the grooves not being consistent from one side to the other. What I have now is a inexpensive plunge router mounted on an inexpensive router table that has a slow down switch. It works super. I've done a lot of work with it. It only takes 1/4" shafted sanding drums. Frank
 
I use a Craftsman oscillating spindle sander. I do knives and woodwork on it and haven't had a problem yet. Just my $.02.
 
I have the harbor f. oscillating spindle sander and I find that it is slow. I don't grind out the finger notches with it, I use a B&D 3x21
belt sander then clean up with the spindle sander.

Does anyone know where you can buy just the 1" sleeves, the packs of ,one of all sizes, are about 7$ and I never use anything but the 1", maybe a 3/4" now and then.
Jerry
 
I have a Rigid brand and it is very tough. I use it for something on almost every knife. You can buy any size sleeve in bags of 12 from Woodcraft.com. My machine takes 4" tall drums but I buy 2" drums and stack them. The ends sometimes go bald if you do a lot of hardened steel and you have to only throw half of it out. They are about 7$ a dozen.
Steve
 
I have a Rigid brand and it is very tough. I use it for something on almost every knife. You can buy any size sleeve in bags of 12 from Woodcraft.com. My machine takes 4" tall drums but I buy 2" drums and stack them. The ends sometimes go bald if you do a lot of hardened steel and you have to only throw half of it out. They are about 7$ a dozen.
Steve

I had a Rigid Belt/Spindle oscillating sander,and it worked great.
(it got stolen awhile back,but a buddy is going to sell me his in the next week or so;I'll take a couple pics for you)
edited to add:Home Depot has them:mine was about $200
 
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What I have now is a inexpensive plunge router mounted on an inexpensive router table that has a slow down switch

Frank, great idea! Gonna give that a try until I can get a horizontal belt sander.

Thanks,
Lon
 
The RIGID as pictured above also includes the oscliiating 4X24 belt sander which is great for a nice even "scratch line" on flat surfaces, spines and butt ends. I also roll the flat sides on scales when they are first put on to get a nice oval shape on handles. The vaccum hook up works pretty well also.

I wouldn't use it to split atoms, but all in all it is a handy little gadget.

Just my 3 cents (inflation and we gotta pay for healthcare, ya know). I will post a WIP by the weekend on a new knife and you will see it's uses.

Steve
 
I also have the harbor f. oscillating spindle sander. Stopped oscillating shortly after I bought it, but it still works. Guess you get what you pay for, got it on sale for $79, find it to be very useful for many things. When it goes I will have to get another.

Dave
 
Thanks for the Info I'll stop by home depot ant look at them.

Steve March is almost over and we still haven't seen your "COMBAT SHELLCRACKER" the suspense is killing me.
 
I have one of the little Grizzly spindle sanders and it works great on finger holds when profiling blades. Problem is the sandpaper doesn't last long. I think most of what you buy for them is more for wood.

I mostly use mine for smoothing edges on a lot of my leather projects.
 
Doug,
Thanks for asking. The "Shellcracker" series pix will be up this weekend, probably without sheaths at first, the first to debut will be the 10" Orca and the 11 1/2" Akula (russian for "shark"). You'll get the names when you see 'em.
I have four pieces going and they are taken, two going overseas in April, but have more at heat treat.

Thanks,
Steve
 
I picked up this one from Harbor Freight.

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ITEM 95088-0VGA

99 bucks and I got it on sale for about 70.

I got it for finger holds as well. It can do the job but I use it more now for texturing handles and scale shaping.

Overall, a good peice of equipment for the price. It was well built and not to heavy. Its big but manageable.

Lonestar JR
 
I have a Ryobi and use it quite abit. It mostly works to true up inside curves after establishing them with the foredom. The sandpaper rolls are expensive and too rough generally so I still have to sand by hand afterward but if it wore out I'd buy another one.
 
Bench top spindle sander review

Thanks for all the input on spindle sanders, after reading all of the comments I felt that I needed to do some additional research.

My biggest requirement I had was that it needed to have a minimum drum size ½ a ¼ would be even better. All the models I looked at had a maximum drum size of 1 ½ witch is plenty. Other factors I looked at were stroke length, strokes per minute, HP, drum length and spindle speed. Of these factors stroke length and HP are the most important, too little stroke length and you lose drum sanding surface and waist drums. Ideally you should be able to use the entire sanding surface of the drum I know you can turn them over but I’m not sure about trimming them, I’m sure you can. The chart shows those factors and the most important factor price.

spindlesander.jpg
 
Jerry
Thanks thats a great idea I hadn't thought of that I could make a plywood overlay for the table top to bring it up to the middle. 2thumbs

Thanks
Doug
 
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