re: Belt Disc Sander

I bought exactly the one in your pic a few years back for the knife swap.

I also was looking for a 1" being a lot less than any of the 2" belts I was seeing. I find for knives I can do a great job of sharpening. It also gives some good finishing, and shaping for smaller curves, and inside diameters on both wood, and softer metals. I use the variable speed a lot, so for me it was worth it to spend the additional. Probably a lot of peeps could use the set speed model, and save some cash though. And I do find a 6" disc kind of puny, but I also got a Rikon 6 x48 belt with a 10" disc, and have a HF 12" disc, plus an oscillating drum sander. As well as a 19/38 wide belt. I don't think you can buy enough sanding machines. Looking at making, or buying a horizontal belt sander if I can find room to stuff it into SAND CITY.

I am happy to have the entire flock, as all of them have strong points, and weak ones too, but I would be lost and having to wave my arms around like a crazy man without them. IOW all of them beat hand sanding by a HUGE margin. :-)

When I got my narrow belt/disc sander I looked at them all, and the winner for me was that Rikon VS unit.