Half a horsepower Permanent Magnet Motor, 120-Volt, Single Phase, and CSA certified are what you’ll find in this machine.
Table: 11-1/2-Inch W x 15-Inch L x 1-5/16-Inch H.
This is how many diameters and lengths the sanding drums are: 3/4″, 1,” 1-1/2,” 2,” and 3..
sanding sleeves: 1/2″, 3/4,” 1,” 1-1/2,” 2,” and 3″ (the 1/2″ sleeve fits right on the spindle).
Is 30 pounds.
It has 5 rubber sanding drums and 6 sleeves. You can buy the Shop Fox W1831 Oscillating Spindle Sander at the store.
A spindle sander is what I need because I make a lot of curved cuts and other things for templates, so I think I need one. Before I bought this item, I looked at a model sold by Harbor Freight and looked at some reviews on Amazon for similar products.
A good sander was out of my price range. For some reason, I thought Shop Fox was a brand from the United States, which might be true. However, the sander was built in China, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but.
Rubber drums were the first thing I thought about. Because most of the curves I make have a larger radius, I’m mostly using the 3″ drum. So that was the first one I put in. As a result, I couldn’t get enough friction on the (M10-1.25) nut to get enough friction on the (Sandpaper Sleeve). It would run up the drum even with very little pressure on the sand paper. Hmmm. I tried to be more tight, but it didn’t work. I had to try again. I used calipers to measure the drum’s expansion (bulging) at the top, middle, and bottom, with and without tightening it up. In the end, there wasn’t much of a difference. The sandpaper sleeve was about 3 inches long, so it seemed to be OK to use. They did well with the other drums, which meant the sleeve would stay put. All of the drums were then checked for their hardness, or durometer, by measuring their rubber hardness. It turns out that the rubber compound of the 3″ is more hard than the other ones. Also, the shape factor (cross sectional area vs. free expandable surface area) of the 3″ drum is a factor, which means that that drum has less bulging than the other drums. When I called them (WI), they agreed to send me a new drum.
Besides, the tool that came with it was too small. It was just a little short of 16mm.
Other things about drums. It comes with three washers for each of the six sleeve sizes: 3,” 2,” 1.5,” 1,” 0.75″, and 0.5. Because there’s no drum, the 0.5″ sleeve sits right on top of the spindle without any other parts. 1.78″, 0.83″, and 0.59. They told us to use the 1.78″ washer on the three largest drums. The 1.5″ sandpaper sleeve gets crushed by this washer. I took another washer that was about 1.5″ long right away. The smallest washer goes on the 0.5″ and holds the sleeve down, which I think is fine because there is no rubber drum.
Spindle: The M10 nut that came with it isn’t very good, and the thread isn’t tapped very well. I replaced it right away. When it comes to squareness, the spindle is better than the sander table. Some of the hair is 89 degrees, but not close to 90 degrees. It will be the same (as expected) after the drum is put in.
When I washed the oil off the surface of this cast iron table, I replaced it with paste wax to make it less slippery and to keep the table more durable. Flatness: A straight edge in a different place wiggled a little. Sensors can tell when something isn’t level up to 0.4mm (the thickness of 4 sheets of copy paper). Afterward, I think I’d rather have a round table with the spindle in the middle so that I can use it from any angle. This way, I can get the same support no matter how I use it. At least that’s how I use this sander. The On/Off switch is facing me.
The dust collector is good. To get rid of the dust, I connected a small shop vac to the back of the sander. did not leave a lot of sawdust on the top of the table. If you want to sand, you only need the 3″ sanding sleeve for that.
Noise: It wasn’t very quiet, but it wasn’t so loud that I had to measure the decibels. All my other noisy tools go well together.
A lot of the things above are why this thing isn’t as good as I thought it was. 4 stars show how I feel about the price to performance ratio. Again, this is a cheap sander. As of now, I’m waiting for a new 3″ drum and hope this thing runs for a long time.
sander is still going strong and there have been no problems with it since May 2019. I use it a lot (just rounded curves on 8 Adirondack chairs). The company was very helpful when I had a problem with the 3″ drum at the start. They sent a new drum right away, and it works without a hitch.
