Ocsillating Spindle Sander?

[SpiderDave]

Thanks everybody this is really very helpful. Muuuch appreciated feed back.

I agree Photobug, does seems a little unrealistic not to have that space. My floor has become a jigsaw puzzle and a bit aggravating sometimes. When I think work bench I think of something at least a few feet long, there's just no room left even for that. I'm at the point where I have things on roller stands in single file and pull to the center work area as I need them, put them away as I don't just so I can move around to work. If I built a bench where these tools are, I wouldn't have any room for them as they are larger and won"t fit on a bench. I do have two good sized work benches, but they're both full. I'm a metal guy, trying to add wood now to a very limited space. 

You all have me re-thinking now that a benchtop machine would in fact do the trick. It would take up less room even on a stand. If it came down to it, I could make a table top (collapsible and adjustable height) that could fold up and hang aside if I needed the support for larger pieces later on. 

One of my roller stands is 3 shelves stacked - hold 3 tools. Surface planer on top, small portable table saw in middle and a portable router table on bottom. Kind of a rolling work bench if you will? My welding cart has 2 welders, a plasma cutter, and 2 spot welders with tanks and cord/cable rests all the way around. Swiss arm knife of welding carts. Has large wheels and glides across the floor easily even though it's likely a few 100 pounds. 

Surprised no one's heard of Bormac though. I did find a couple things mention in UK but that's it. 

BTW: That Jet benchtop ad is nice!

[Bob10]

I have a Max and a State.  The table on the Max gets higher marks from me

[BattleRidge]

If I were to do that I would work hard to make sure the surface allowed the level to be exact with the level of the bench.  Make that tool shelf lower and then add an appropriate thickness boards under each tool to make the surfaces of the tools level with the bench.

In my case, the drop-down section is sized to align with the router table and to provide support on the outfeed side for longer items, allowing me to simply focus on feeding items into the router and letting the work surface collect it once finished.  

The drop-down height is also ideal for the scroll saw and it allows me to sit comfortably in a chair while performing detailed cutting on items.  Should I want to stand while scrolling, the 18" wide section adjacent to the drop down provides a convenient height to do that.

The sander primarily works in conjunction with the bandsaw to smooth out curved cuts when needed (thus they are placed to conveniently face each other), as well as to handle sanding on any other projects.  The vast majority of my sanding is on smaller pieces of wood (under 24" long) so it is easily handled by the sander table alone.  Additionally, on a variety of boards I have the need to soften and partially round off the sharpness between the face and edge of the wood to create a more rustic, worn or prim appearance and having the surrounding surface level with the smaller area of the sander table would create difficulty in the ability to raise, lower and tilt the wood.  I haven't found the need to sand longer boards, though that is where a board or two on the adjacent surface would come into play, though I have yet to find a need to do so.

The overall work-surface aligns with my table saw (as well as a future table saw when obtained) and works great as an outfeed area after ripping.  The surface also serves as a level and solid assembly area at a comfortable work height, and is sized to accommodate the majority of the projects I create.

The workbench / table area is still a work in progress with the installation of drawers and other creature-comforts to follow.  I spent much time prior to the build working with different heights and placing the equipment at different levels and thus far it's proving to be quite efficient.

[SpiderDave]

In my case, the drop-down section is sized to align with the router table and to provide support on the outfeed side for longer items, allowing me to simply focus on feeding items into the router and letting the work surface collect it once finished.  

The drop-down height is also ideal for the scroll saw and it allows me to sit comfortably in a chair while performing detailed cutting on items.  Should I want to stand while scrolling, the 18" wide section adjacent to the drop down provides a convenient height to do that.

The sander primarily works in conjunction with the bandsaw to smooth out curved cuts when needed (thus they are placed to conveniently face each other), as well as to handle sanding on any other projects.  The vast majority of my sanding is on smaller pieces of wood (under 24" long) so it is easily handled by the sander table alone.  Additionally, on a variety of boards I have the need to soften and partially round off the sharpness between the face and edge of the wood to create a more rustic, worn or prim appearance and having the surrounding surface level with the smaller area of the sander table would create difficulty in the ability to raise, lower and tilt the wood.  I haven't found the need to sand longer boards, though that is where a board or two on the adjacent surface would come into play, though I have yet to find a need to do so.

The overall work-surface aligns with my table saw (as well as a future table saw when obtained) and works great as an outfeed area after ripping.  The surface also serves as a level and solid assembly area at a comfortable work height, and is sized to accommodate the majority of the projects I create.

The workbench / table area is still a work in progress with the installation of drawers and other creature-comforts to follow.  I spent much time prior to the build working with different heights and placing the equipment at different levels and thus far it's proving to be quite efficient.

BattleRidge, that's a great platform to work! I would looove to have something like that in my shop. Maybe some day down the road after I gain some floor space back or I get to add on. I'm anxious to see how your table turns out once your satisfied and consider it finished. Do you mind me asking what you put on the top there? Is that formica or some type of surface added to reduce friction/wear? I've been wondering if there was a more cost effective material to lay down on the top or not - than formica. I've heard you can use marlite board but I don't think of that as holding up well. But I don't actually have any experience with it to make that assumption either. Except using it to cut patterns. When I use a wood hardener on it, it does hold up fairly well. for what it is. I'm a metal worker in a woodworker's world here. Ha ha! (I have so many questions.) But,.. great table, i like the designed & functionality you gave it. Thanks for showing that.

[photobug]

 Do you mind me asking what you put on the top there? Is that formica or some type of surface added to reduce friction/wear? I've been wondering if there was a more cost effective material to lay down on the top or not - than formica. 

My chop saw bench is attached to the wall and is topped with hardboard.  It is solid and smooth, cheap and soft enough to not dull blades if I chisel into it.  The edge of the hardboard might be suspect to premature wearing, so I set it on the surface and trimmed the edge with cedar to make a solid flat edge.  I have a couple of roles of formica sitting around I picked up from Habitat Re-stores but chose hardboard for this surface.  My choice might have been different if metal working was my thing.

[photobug]

Your description of your shop space sounds like mine.  Think chinese puzzle.

Have you looked at a flip-top stand.  I built one years ago and it holds my thickness planer and scroll saw, which i guess is a big mistake as when I searched youtube for fliptop workstands every video had the rigid spindle sander and thickness planer as the tools that belongs in these stands.  I think I need to make another one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLSIgyhlwuU

[EvilTwin]

Surprised no one's heard of Bormac though. I did find a couple things mention in UK but that's it. 

Im gonna guess that it was some type of asian machine, probably done in the 90's by the few hits that I found on Google for that name.  And it seemed like they were non-us sources as well, so it was probably never imported here officially.  Post a pic if you have it.

As far as spindle sanders go, as Bob mentioned, Max and State are recognizable names.  The thing with floor standing spindle sanders is that there were never that many built and they were probably only used in higher end custom shops.  I think I've see one in the wild and it was never something I felt I really needed or wanted to devote the floor space too.  I have one of the Delta Boss benchtop versions.  It is fairly well made for what it is and I pull it out very occasionally if I need it for something.  So either one of these if you can find it or one of the clone versions that are over on Amazon may work out as well.  Good luck

[Cooler]

I can't help much with input on the spindle sander and only recently obtained my Ridgid Oscillating Belt & Spindle Sander so don't have a lot of time wracked up on it, though thus far I have been quite pleased.  

I am in the process of completing a combination workbench / assembly / outfeed table in which I incorporated a 30" x 30" drop-down area for portable equipment.  While the drop-down height is sized more for my small router table and to provide a comfortable height to sit and work with the scroll saw, it also works great for the sander and to bring the surface up to height and support larger pieces, a 2x4 or such can be laid on the bench to help.  I place the sander on the lower shelf when not in use.  I'm not sure if any of this helps a lot in your situation but it could provide some food for thought.

I have this Rigid sander.  I misplaced the "key" and it was not operational. I had to order the key from a third party vendor as no one at Home Depot could order any replacement parts for this. 

And why a key for a sander?  I have far more dangerous machines in my shop and none have a "key".  Crazy.

[BattleRidge]

BattleRidge, that's a great platform to work! I would looove to have something like that in my shop. Maybe some day down the road after I gain some floor space back or I get to add on. I'm anxious to see how your table turns out once your satisfied and consider it finished. Do you mind me asking what you put on the top there? Is that formica or some type of surface added to reduce friction/wear? I've been wondering if there was a more cost effective material to lay down on the top or not - than formica. I've heard you can use marlite board but I don't think of that as holding up well. But I don't actually have any experience with it to make that assumption either. Except using it to cut patterns. When I use a wood hardener on it, it does hold up fairly well. for what it is. I'm a metal worker in a woodworker's world here. Ha ha! (I have so many questions.) But,.. great table, i like the designed & functionality you gave it. Thanks for showing that.

I obtained all of the wood for my workbench / assembly / outfeed table at Lowe's (10% veteran discount) and thus didn't use anything fancy.  I will probably be a little more refined when I install the drawers and customize it a more.  I have less than $200 invested and thus far it seems to be solid and functional for my uses.

The top is two layers of 3/4" plywood screwed together and it came out quite stable and flat (a 4' level shows no humps or dips and the bubble is level).  I had thought about using some glue also but the screws alone work very well.  The work surface is 1/8" tempered hardboard (quite smooth and easy to slide) and the cost is less than $7.  I plan on ripping some oak baseboard that was left over from our home build and installing it around the edges for a better appearance and to hold the hardboard in place.  If it needs to be secured further I plan on simply using double-sided tape.  While the surface can likely mar and become damaged over time (like many wood surfaces), if needed I can quickly, easily and affordably replace the hardboard (the boards I purchased are double sided so flipping the surface over can be another option for additional wear).

Wood hardener could be an option and I hadn't really considered using any (though I have some left over from a previous project).  When I cut the 30" section, I used some blue painters tape to help prevent chipping and noticed some signs of surface marking as I began to remove the tape, though a heat-gun quickly solved that problem and made removing the tape cleaner.  I used a fine-tooth saber saw blade and in areas I didn't use the tape the cut was smooth so in retrospect the tape wasn't needed.  The wood hardener could prove to be a plus, though my thought is that it could possibly produce some surface swelling (but that is only a thought and I have no personal experience in that).  I may end up coating the bottom of the drop-down area and use it as the top for a while to see what it does, knowing that I can always flip it back to the uncoated top side.  I might do some more digging around on the subject.

For metalworking, I have a simple solid steel angle table frame with a 4' x 30" piece of 3/4" plywood attached (this also holds my bench vice).  Before my new work surface build, my metalworking table was also my woodworking table, as well as the stand for my router table and scroll saw.

[AZ Engineer]

I watched for a long time and bought an old MAX.  Make sure if buying an old machine you look for one with all the spindles.  They are very expensive to purchase if available or you would have to have them made.  I've read they cost like $100 each.  Mine came with 8 spindles and three throat plates.  Mine had a leaking seal at the base of the oil bath that the gears run and and finding a replacement was a challenge. I stripped it down, repainted and put the new seal in and I still have a very slow leak (grrr).  Maybe the seal I found was not the exact replacement.  The leak is slow enough that I won't bother trying to replace the seal again.