Edge sander question

[Jim Hill]

Hi all!

I'm thinking of getting an edge sander, in particular a General International 15-005, 6 x89. Does anyone have personal experience with this sander? I'm interested in dust collection (I have an Oneida 2hp Gorilla) as well as ease in table adjustment. Thanks for your help.

Jim

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I have the oscillating one. Couldn't be without it. It works great with my gorilla.

Get the oscillating one. You can stand on it and it won't burn your wood.

Mike

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Jim,
This model appears to be one of the clones made in Taiwan and sold by many importers. I have one that was imported by Transpower. It's about 15 years old and still works fine.

I whole heartedly recommend an edge sander in general. They do wonders for creeping up on miter cuts, or fixing up a boo-boo. I have a small shop, so I had to get rid of my 6x48/12 belt disc combo. It was a wise decision for me.

The latest bunch of edge sanders now offer oscillation for about 50% more. The oscillating units when I purchased mine were very expensive and thus prohibitive for me. Today, they are more reasonable for a home hobbyist and I would strongly consider one. But a non-oscillating edge sander works well too.

The only negative critique I have about my edgesander is that the belt speed is a little too fast thus making for an aggressive cut. There is no way to slow it down. You also need to carefully monitor sandpaper wear because dull paper can burn the wood easily. Also, I would recommend that 120 grit paper be the finest grit, with 100, 80 and 40 grit belts being the most common range for me.

Again, the edgesander is considered one of my essential machines in my home shop.

cheers, Jeff

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Jim,
I didn't answer your question about dust collection....

I've found that the hood that came with my machine (which also serves as the belt guard) was somewhat inadequate in capturing the dust which is projected to the right side of the machine. I modified my hood so that it 'sticks out' off of the platen as shown in the picture below. The hood has a hinged feature that allows one edge of the hood to swing away when sanding pieces that are longer than the platten. However, more importantly, the hinged feature will swing away should I carelessly press the wood up against the spinning belt and it drags the wood with my hand into the hood. I shutter to think what would happen if the hood was rigidly attached.

With this simple modification, the dust collection capture from the machine was greatly enhanced. As far as whether my entire dust collection system can handle it, I use a combination of 4" and 6" dia duct and a 2hp single stage dust collector with no problems.

cheers, Jeff