Belt / Disc Sander?

I had one of these briefly recently. Real POS compared to my Jet. The biggest drawback I saw was no belt guards at all and only one table which you had to switch from the disk to the belt positions. It is cheap, though. The motor looked about as cheap as a motor can look and still run, too.

Would it work? Probably, sort of, for awhile. Would you like it? I really doubt it.

The 6x48/12" disk sanders are much better machines, although the HF one is pretty crummy looking. Compare it to

GWE

You get what you pay for. Those cheapie HF sanders are not very good.

In my mind, the minimum acceptable belt/disc combo is the Jet 12"/6x48. This is a real tool, that will last a long time. We use one in a 3 man shop, running stainless steel and other tough stuff into it all day long, and it has lasted 8 years so far. Unfortunately, its not $160- try $850. Up market from that, the Wilton, and Powermatic are both good- All 3 companies are owned by WMH, a swiss company. Delta used to make a good one, with a fully enclosed base, not sure if the new ones are still as good. Most new Delta tools are not made in the US anymore, so you might as well buy Jet. A factory reconditioned old Delta is $1500-

For wood only, you can get away with those little mickey mouse ones, until they break, or the smoke gets out of the motor.

The Grizzly looks nice but it would blow my budget. I went and looked at the HF and indeed it seems a bit flimsy. As an alternative to stay in my price range should I consider foregoing the belt? This disc unit looked fairly sturdy...