Oscillating spindle sanders are not new to woodworking, They are, however, fairly new additions to the home shop.

About Oscillating Spindle Sanders

A spindle is round. A sanding spindle is sandpaper or other gritty material in the round. It is intended to sand curved surfaces, usually edges, to their final shape and smoothness. When used with a drill press or portable drill, sanding drums act as spindle sanders. The benefit is allowing smooth contours to be sanded. The downside is that the rapid rotation and aggressive sanding action quickly fills the spaces between the grits on the sandpaper. This is called "loading". Loaded sandpaper doesn't let the grit dig into the wood and sanding becomes, at best, inefficient.

Adding an oscillation to the spindle (up and down movement) allows more of the paper to be used when sanding. The mixed action of rotation and oscillation also slows loading of the paper by knocking the sawdust out of the spaces between the grits. So an oscillating spindle sander is more efficient and the paper lasts longer.

An oscillating spindle sander spins the spindle, usually hard rubber, around in a circle and, at the same time, uses an eccentric mechanism to move the spindle up and down at a much slower rate.

About Ridgid

The Ridge Tool Company is a subsidiary of Emerson Professional Tools, which in turn is a Division of Emerson.

Emerson started out in the late 1800s to make good electric motors. It succeeded and expanded as the Emerson Electric Company. The first motor-driven fans were Emerson and they led the pack before air conditioning.

Ridge was, and is, a maker of high quality tools for the plumbing trade. One of their recent developments in that area is the oil-less thread cutter. This allows pipe threads to be cut much more quickly and cleanly, saving plumbing professionals time.

After Ridge joined Emerson, they began manufacturing woodworking tools. They use the Emerson motor, still one of the best in the world in fractional horsepower induction motors, to drive the tools. They have been making tools for woodworkers since the seventies, but woodworkers weren't familiar with the name. That is because they made the tools exclusively for Sears under the Craftsman brand.

A few years ago, Sears moved their tool manufacturing away from Ridgid. Since Ridge had all their power woodworking tool production in that one basket, this was a crisis for them. They responded by doing some minor redesign of their existing production, changing the brand to Ridgid and attempting to enter the home woodworking market. The stroke of genius lay in getting an exclusive deal with the fast-growing Home Depot chain to sell the tools. The rest, as they say, is history.

Home Woodshop Oscillating Spindle Sander by Ridgid

The Ridgid Oscillating Belt and Spindle Sander EB4424 is Home Depot's entry into this relatively new market. They compete primarily with the Delta BOSS which hit the market first. Note that the name of this tool includes belt sander. That is an important distinction which we will cover later.

What you get

When you leave Home Depot you will be lugging a 48 pound box. When you get it home it will have everything you need to start sanding. There is the main base unit with the 3/8 hp, 4.6 amp Emerson induction motor. It is mostly plastic, but good quality plastic. There are hard rubber spindles that hold 3/4", 1", 1 1/2" and 2" sanding drums. These are all 4 1/2" long. The metal spindle sticking up from the base will handle the 1/2" sanding sleeve included. The 4" X 24" belt sander attachment and a sanding belt for it are inside. The parts needed for the minor assembly and the allen wrenches are also included. The manual is well written and easy to follow.

Ridgid specs and features

The sander is driven by a 3/8 horsepower Emerson induction motor. It draws 4.6 amps. It is a very quiet motor. The motor spins the spindle at 1750 rpm and the eccentric oscillates the spindle shaft 3/4" up and down 60 times a minute.

All the included accessories and tools have places for on-board storage. The heavy plastic base (tool weighs 39 pounds) sits on four rubber feet. The base has holes for permanent mounting, slots for placing over saw horses, and ridges for using clamps. The front part of the table top tilts from 0 to 45 degrees. In the fully tilted position, it acts as a cover for the spindles and their accessories. Two handles inset on the sides make for easy portability. There is a miter slot but the miter gauge is optional.

The rubber spindle with a sandpaper sleeve over it slips over the metal motor spindle. There is a zero clearance insert for each spindle size that goes on first. The correct size compression washer slips over the spindle. The knurled "soft touch" knob is screwed on until the compression washer has spread the rubber enough to hold the sanding sleeve tightly. Flipping the safety switch starts the action. The large table surface makes keeping the piece you are edge sanding flat easy. If the paper does load, a soft rubber belt cleaner works well to get it ready to go again. The sanding action is very aggressive so keep the piece moving.

There is a hole in the back of the sander for connecting a standard 2 1/2" shop vacuum hose. It works pretty well but eye protection and a dust mask are still a necessity.

Belt sanding with oscillation

What makes this spindle sander unique is the capability it has to become an oscillating belt sander. Installing the belt sander is easy and quick. It uses the same motor spindle as the round sanders. When it is on you have a 4" X 24" belt sander. Any standard 4" X 24" belt can be used. It has a quick release lever and a tracking adjustment knob just like the better stationary belt sanders. It adds that 3/4" oscillation.

Sanding against the platen is for straight edges and outside curves. It is fast. The large end can be used as a 2 1/2" round sander for inside curves. Dust collection works as well with this one as with the spindles. maybe a little better. I have used it to do the rough flattening on friends' block plane soles. Saves a lot of time. When sanding using the platen of the belt sander, the optional miter gauge can be used for edges and the table can be tilted for bevels.

Its strengths

Major strengths are a superior motor. Mine is four years old and no sign of wear yet. Good ergonomic design right down to the "soft touch" knobs makes it nice to use. Although I'm not a fan of plastic, the quality of this tool overcomes most of my concerns. The fact that it has a lifetime warranty helps ease the worry as well. It sands fast, is easy to change setups when needed, and it is portable.

It generally sits near my bandsaw and scrollsaw. The long drums allow me to cut stacked identical parts on the saws and then bring them quickly to identical finished, smooth shape on the sander.

Weaknesses

A lot of plastic still concerns me. The tilting part of the table, or rather the arced metal pieces that allow the tilt are not very sturdy. Even with the soft touch knobs really tight it slips with just a little too much pressure on it. The sanding sleeves are a little expensive and only available at Home Depot. The Ridgid web site has parts and accessories available now but I haven't tried it.

The steel spindle will rust. I found this out after having to rip a 1/2" sleeve off after it had been on awhile during some craft production. a little oil or wax regularly is called for here. Even with dust collection, a regular touch up after use with a brush attached to the shop vac is in order.

With its quirks and its features, the good far outweighs the bad. I wouldn't trade it.



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