Hi, Wally. I've seen using the Ryobi sander for several years now. It's certain- ly paid for itself many times over in terms of time saved on certain jobs, but it probably won't do everything for you that you hope it can, and the areas where it won't work probably wouldn't do any bet- ter with various shaped attachments. I bought mine hoping that it would help in finishing sanding hard-to-reach places on soundboards that couldn't be reached with a power block sander, and so would otherwise have to be done by hand. I still have to many of those areas by hand. In tight areas, either the piano case, or the bridges interfers with the handle which contains the motor and consequently you can't get the saanding head to lay flat on the piece your trying to sand. If you can't get the head to lie flat, it will chew up the surface and you'll wind up having to hand sand it anyways. Even in areas where access isn't a problem, you hgave to be constantly vigilant about keeping the sand- ing head flat, because the handle part which contains the motor is very heavy, compared to the size and weight of the sanding head and will reward a moment of inattention by chewing up the surface for you. This is an orbital-motion sander. If you use paper coarse enough to remove material easily, you get fairly deep swirl marks in the wood. Even when following up with progressively finer grades of paper, some swirl marks will remain because of the orbital motion, so you'll probably have to do some by-hand, finishing sanding anyway. The sander is very poorly balanced, with virtually all the the weight being in the handle. Using the sander for any length of time gets real- ly uncomfortable , as you're constantly straining to keep the sanding surface parallel to the work surface. Lastly, the motor is really noisy, so you HAVE to use ear protection when using it. That's not too big a deal though, because you probably use ear protection with every power tool you use. If this sounds like a negative review, it really isn't. The Ryobi is certainly worth it's price and is a quality tool. It's just that it probably won't do for you all that you hope it will. And dif- ferently shaped attachments aren't going to help much with the problems you're likely to encounter using it. I'd certainly buy mine all over again; and you can't argue with the price. On the other hand, if I paid four times as much for essentially the same tool, I probably wouldn't be too happy right now. Your best bet might be to enquire among other tech's in your area, and find some who own the two tools you're considering buying. See if you can go over to their shops sometime and try out the two tools for yourself, before making a decision. Ultimately, you may be better off buying the Ryobi, PLUS some of those hand-help shapes you've seen in the catalogs. No matter which one you buy, you're still going to have to some hand sanding in most cases. Probably more than you anticipate. Hope this helps. Les Smith lessmith@buffnet.net On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, Wallace F. Wilson wrote: > I've been looking at a couple of profile sanders, Ryobi's and Porter > Cable's. They have triangular heads. Porter Cable's has various > attachments and various shapes of sandpaper to fit the various attachments, > designed to fit in odd places. Some of the catalogues have these same > shapes designed to be hand-held. I've usually used cabinet scrapers and > sandpaper for these odd spots such as filigree work or decorative legs. > Porter Cable's price tag is $118.00, and Ryobi's is $33, but Ryobi's does > not have shaped attachments. It does however, have a more aggressive speed. > > Can someone who has used these hummers comment on their worth for the > dollar, and whether they save significant time or skin? Thanks for feedback. > Wally Wilson > >
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