Shop Fox W1831 1/2 HP Single Phase Oscillating Spindle Sander

Bought this for the wood shop at my old company and worked well. So much easier than hand sanding. I would buy again for my personal garage if I had room

This is a good quality tool that is a good value. Perpendicularity is good right out of the box and function is quiet and smooth. Dust control is excellent. I was able to make smooth compound curves in 3”” thick material for some clocks I was making. I quickly learned a light touch technique that created flawlessly smooth compound curves. It comes with several diameter spindles that are easy to store and to change. I have other high quality woodworking machines and this fits right in.

I love this thing! I had a Rigid EB4424 oscillating belt/spindle sander (the one sold at HD for ~$200) and this is so much better as an oscillating spindle sander. That should go without saying thought since any tool tailored to only one specific task should perform better than a tool made to do many. Regardless this is a nice little machine. Pros: ~ basically NO SETUP. Unpack it, attach a spindle with a sanding sleeve, plug it in, and start sanding. ~ runs nice and smooth. It spins quite a bit faster than the Rigid which adds to its utility over the Rigid one. ~ very well balanced. I don't know if you can adjust the spindle for balance because mine was nearly perfect out of the box so I didn't bother trying. ~ I love that it comes with a 3" spindle over the 2" of the Rigid. You might not expect it, but that extra inch makes all the difference... ("That's what she said!" Anyone? Huh? Huh?) ~ It is surprisingly light. I would normally say that is a con because it speaks to the small size of the motor, but I don't think a bench top unit like this NEEDS a huge 1hp motor. If you are bogging this spindle sander down, you are either applying too much pressure (trying to remove too much material too quickly) or you should buy a larger free standing unit. The light weight means it will be easy for me to tuck this into a cabinet and keep it out of the way until I really need it for the occasional project. ~ The dust collection works surprisingly well in my test even with a tiny little shop vac. I did however find that the port did not fit my small shop vac hose because it is a 1-1/2" port. I used this small Stanley unit: <LINK REMOVED> The Stanley is a 1-1/4" hose so it doesn't fit snugly inside the dust port on the sander. My temporary solution was duct tape and once it was sealed, even that tiny vac pulled enough air that there was hardly ANY noticeable dust on the deck of the sander. I am sure once I figure out an adapter situation and use my standard dust collection or shopvac up it will perform even better. Con: ~ somewhat small oscillation range. That is kind of standard for these bench top units and given they are essentially all the same overseas manufactured unit re-branded for each seller, its not surprising. I just means you will have to flip the sanding sleeve over occasionally to wear it evenly. ~ one thing that slightly annoyed me is they made specific slots to store all the little throat plates, spindles, and even the wrench, but they didn't include any place to store the extra washers included for the smaller spindle sizes! I hoped they might fit over the little spindle spikes but alas, they do not. So now I am left with three small washers that I need to make sure to not lose if I want to use the smaller spindles. ~ I would have preferred the more standard shopvac 2-1/4" port. Not because you necessarily need the power for effective dust collection, but just because its more common and I wouldn't have to now go find an adapter. I believe this is what I need? http://amzn.com/B008KXPL80 I will update this review once I find out... Overall, this is a great little machine for the hobbyist woodworker! Maybe even the more casual professional if you don't find yourself sanding curves everyday. Its nice and small so you can tuck it away until you actually need it. I would absolutely rate it five stars if it weren't for the dust collection port size and the lack of storage for the easily lost washers! I would certainly buy it again despite those small gripes. UPDATE 1/17/2016: It took a while, but I finally got around to purchasing that adapter and wouldn't you know it doesn't fit. Shucks... I haven't found a replacement yet, but I haven't really looked. I removed the link to help reduce confusion. I also added a couple pictures of the first project I sanded with this sweet little dity! See those sick smooth curves on the legs...

Nice machine at a reasonable price. Works excellent. Love it

I confess I was disappointed the first time I used this tool-- I like to enjoy new tool purchases for as long as possible, to savor the fun of setting up a new tool, getting it calibrated to my needs, and then using it on whatever project prompted its acquisition. This tool was ready to go out of the box and was so efficient at doing the job for which I'd purchased it (smoothing bandsaw marks out of interior curves in red oak), that within 10 minutes of opening the box, the job was done and I was already looking for a place to store this until the next project. Where's the fun in that? In all seriousness, this is a great tool that performs better than expected. Determined to have some fun with it before putting it away, I did test it on various scraps of wood and was pleased that it did not bog down even when sanding 3" thick hard maple. The adjustable nut on the top of the spindle did a great job compressing the rubber spindle sleeves to make sure the sandpaper tubes stayed on. The work surface provides plenty of space for my needs. I would have saved myself considerable time on prior projects (and likely had better end results) if I had purchased this tool sooner-- it beats the heck out of making a different curved sanding block to hand-sand the inside of every curve.

If you do not already have an oscillating spindle sander, this will quickly become one of your favorite tools. It chews through wood in a hurry when shaping something, but you have a surprising amount of control and can do relatively detailed work with it as well. If you already have one, then I would say this is a great value for the price. You "can" bog it down if you really lean into it, but don't do that. On a 1 3/4 inch poplar board (hard wood, much harder than pine which is what most 2x4's are made of), 1 foot long and 1 foot wide, you should be able to take 1/2 inch off of a side (with the grain) in about 5 minutes, no problem, without straining the machine. Any faster and you may start to bog the motor. The nice machined work surface means you will get nice 90 degree angles. Of course, you can hold your work piece at an angle if needed (just hang on tight). I have been using it for making guitar bodies, and I love it. Things that used to take me more than an hour can now be done in under 5 minutes. By switching spindles and/or grains you can go from a "rasp" for removing large amounts of wood to a "nail file" to get a nice smooth finish that may not even need any hand-sanding if you are careful. One thing to check as soon as you take it out of the box is to make sure the motor spins up and works smoothly. The first one I got had some issues with the motor (intermittent starting and stopping). It still gets 5 stars because Amazon shipped me another one immediately and sent out UPS to pick up the bad one, all within 2 days, making me completely whole and satisfied. The replacement works like a charm and has already seen many hours of use with no issues. At this price, this is a great bargain. Others have complained about the spindle travel being too short. I am not sure why they think that, but it works perfectly for me. If the "bottom" of the sleeve gets gummed up, you can flip it over, and use an abrasive cleaning stick to clean it when both ends are gummed (which I highly recommend, search for them on Amazon as well).

Replaced 20 year old Ryobi Great speed. Good selection of spindle sizes. Good design of table. Great dust collection. Use it nearly every day.

Bought it on sale and love it. Great machine for the price

Superó expectativas, más con la promoción de meses sin intereses! Pongan mas promociones!

Belle petit machine, je fait du bricolage est c est génial . J ai faire venir les sleeves de la marque powertec elle a ajuste parfaitement sur les manchon .

as a tinkerer I needed some sort of sander to take care of perimeter sanding for my projects... It works fast and fairly precised... The oscillating feature keeps the disk clean and also helps sand things faster.... I plugged it into a foot switch which allows for more precise control... love it.

Works as advertised plenty of power table is square to spindle price was right just havn't owned it long enough to be able to give it 5 stars.

works great as addvertzied