Sander Is there such an animal?

[Ronn W]

Looking for a belt sander mostly for use on outside curves or circles.  Most of reasonably priced units for a small shop are similar to this:

Seems like an awkward way to sand, say a 24" diameter circle or a curved table leg - and the belt is running perpendicular to the grain.

I think that, for that type of sanding,  that  one like this with the sanding taking place parallel to the grain would be better and the supprt surface is larger.:

But that's large and expensive.  The only other unit that I have found is Ridgid's baby sander: (I already have a spindle sander)

Anybody know of another small unit with the belt mounted like the Ridgid's????

[RichardA]

For awhile while my sander was broken down, I just flipped a regular belt sander upside down, clamped it in a vise and did what I needed to do

[Minnesota Steve]

Define big and expensive.  The Ridgid is about your cheapest/smallest option other than clamping a portable belt sander into your own vise/jig/table.

http://www.grizzly.com/edge-sanders

[krtwood]

The Grizzly 6x80 edge sanders are the smallest and cheapest of the full size units.  No one makes a 6x48 that I'm aware of, but Matthias has plans for one.

[drzaius]

1 hour ago, RichardA said:

For awhile while my sander was broken down, I just flipped a regular belt sander upside down, clamped it in a vise and did what I needed to do

I've done something similar. I made a jig to hold my ancient Makita 9924 belt sander horizontally, complete with fence & table. I clamps in my trusty Workmate. I use it rather than my Ridgid when I need lots of power for extra coarse grits. Also when I'm doing a lot linear production & have a helper (read reluctant offspring) I put a different grit in each sander.

[pkinneb]

Prior to my 6" Grizzly belt sander I used one of the Ridid ones for years it worked really well. I also have a disk sander but can count on one hand how many times I have used it and those were all for turning projects (segments)

[wdwerker]

I've had a Ridgid osselating belt sander for many years, great little machine. Then I stepped up to the big Jet sander that Ronn posted a picture of as expensive. Yea it's north of a grand but  I have found more uses for it than I ever considered. I added a fence so I could sand endgrain at a perfect 90 to the board. When you need endgrain that shows to be flawless it does it in seconds. Dust collection isn't great.