Edge Sander - What Grit?? What abrasive? Where?

[Rick Fisher]

I use 120 grit. When I first got into stationary sanding machines I thought the finer the better.. Fine belts burn and don't last .. Also, 120 on an edge sander or a Wide belt, leaves a better finish than when sanded with a hand sander.

No idea if that is true..lol .. But its the way it seems to me ..

Edge sanders are awesome tools. Mine only has one speed, but I still love it Use it more than I would ever have imagined.

[Max Neu]

I have a powermatic, and I ended up using some spray on adhesive to apply a piece of plastic laminate to the table. It always seemed to leave marks on the work piece before, but the laminate eliminated those issues.

[glenn bradley]

My machine is 3-phase and I run it with a VFD which gives me the option to slow it down :-)

Ah . . . jealousy

[Jim Eller]

I have a powermatic, and I ended up using some spray on adhesive to apply a piece of plastic laminate to the table. It always seemed to leave marks on the work piece before, but the laminate eliminated those issues.

Thanks for the tip Max.

Still wondering, is there any way to slow these things down?

Thanks,

JimE

[Jim Andrew]

These sanders are pretty simply made, mine does not oscillate, just has a flat belt pulley on the motor and a flat idler on the other end and the belt runs between the two, so there is no mechanism where you can change the speed of the machine. I use 120 grit belts, use the sander to sand the edges of doors, face frames etc. The radius end makes a nice place to sand curves. Once you have had an edge sander, you don't want to do without one.