Bobbin sanders

[Spectric]

Hi all

Whats your experiences with these machines?

Looking at the sub £200 items it is obvious they all come out the same chinese factory rebranded in different colours with some variation in price but is the quality all the same or is it like chickens where they are graded and the A grades go to M&S / Waitrose , mid range to Morrisons / Sainsbury's and the misfits to Asda's / Tescos ?

Then above £200 they again look similar but with even bigger price differences; Axminsters AC1400 ss at £260 looks like the Record BBS1 at £400 apart from it's round table, both weighing in at 30 odd Kg.

So far the Axminster AC1400 is leading but it is around double the price of the Orange brand at £125 so looking for peoples thoughts and experiences please.

 

[marcros]

What are you using it for, and how often? Are you lifting it on and off a bench often? I had a quick go with the Triton one at a show and it seemed ok, certainly for hobby use. If you used it commercially, it would prob be worth spending more.

 

[clogs]

I quite fancy one but also a 16" thickness sander as well.........
had a look on u YOUTUBE and think thats the way I'm gonna go.....
I know and fully understand that the likes of Axminster need to make a profit but rebadgeing Chinese stuff just aint on.....
If it's Chinese that's OK, if it's made up to a Standard and there's plenty of warranty back up....no problem....
It'd be more fun to make ur own anyway......
Shame Ldil / Aldi dont sell em.....I'd be happy then......hahaha....
Actually if they sold tools the same as they sell groceries.....and not rubbish stuff....they'd clean up.....
sorry rant over.....

 

[AES]

I bought one of these last year (pic right down the bottom for some reason):

It's pretty good for the price - as Frank says above, there seems to be a lot of the same "Made in China" machines which are basically appear to be the same - just colour and name badge differences - at quite different price points:

Advantages:

1. Very quick and easy to change from belt to spindle mode;

2. Table easy to adjust and angle stops quite accurate;

3. Easy availability of both drums and belts in various grits;

4. Dust extraction quite good.

Disadvantages:

1. VERY VERY loud (largely plastic outer casing works as an "amplifier" (I think);

2. Bigger & heavier than I thought;

3. Sanding drums are a bit loose on their spindles (but easily cured with a ring of platic insulating tape at the top and bottom of each.

As above, I doubt it would be suitable for trade use, but for me (hobby/DIY) it's fine. Price was about 350 Euros (inc delivery and Swiss import duty).

For the above hobby/DIY use I would happily recommend it. (Note, what seemed to be "the same" machine was available a bit cheaper on Amazon UK but they would export to Switzerland (I bought mine in Germany).

HTH

 

[davej.]

The Triton tsps370 is a 350W induction motor version - there were a lot on ebay ~£100 up last xmas on , but sold out by June it seems??
You may find one via ebay sold listings .
I guess all the 450W ones are the same
I asked about noise a while back -
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/thread...vs-450w-noise-difference.105613/#post-1150676

 

[custard]

A cheap bobbin sander is just about the only hobby grade machine in my commercial furniture workshop. It's not brilliant, but it just about gets the job done.

More important than the machine IMO is the quality of the abrasive. It's like most woodworking machines, it's the tooling that is critical. Don't try and save a few bob with cheap abrasives or you'll end up cursing at the machine when that's not where the problem is.

 

[RogerS]

Is there any advantage to be had for getting an oscillating one ? I can see that it could make the abrasive last longer. I'm after one to sand back those awful ovals that I had spray painted a while back. There's a thread here How would you paint these ? year ago...best get my skates on !

 

[Droogs]

God Roger. I'd forgotten about them did you ever get your money back?

 

[Myfordman]

Is there any advantage to be had for getting an oscillating one ? I can see that it could make the abrasive last longer. I'm after one to sand back those awful ovals that I had spray painted a while back. There's a thread here How would you paint these ? year ago...best get my skates on !

If you dont want/need an oscillating spindle machine and you really only need it for the one task, I'd be looking at basic drums and sleeves for use in a pillar drill

 

[RogerS]

God Roger. I'd forgotten about them did you ever get your money back?

Yeah...I got a fair wodge back.

 

[RogerS]

If you dont want/need an oscillating spindle machine and you really only need it for the one task, I'd be looking at basic drums and sleeves for use in a pillar drill

I've had a go. I'd have to faff about with supports at the right angle for the sides. Then there is the question of dust extraction.

 

[Orraloon]

I've had a go. I'd have to faff about with supports at the right angle for the sides. Then there is the question of dust extraction.

I built a table box that sits on the drill table with an extraction port in the side. A few different size inserts to go with the sanding drums. I used the live center from my lathe as the bottom bearing for the drum. While it does not osilate you can use the table height and depth stop to spread the wear on the sanding roller

 

[RogerS]

Elegant. Unfortunately my ovals have angles sides ...inside and out.

 

[sunnybob]

I have the record bench bobbin sander. Its incredibly useful.... about once every 6 months. The table tilts which is a great help for angled edges.
But getting seperate sized spindles is where Record make their money. Ridiculous prices for a threaded rod and a piece of rubber.
As said above. Theres a huge difference in sanding drum quality. I mainly use sealey because record is so difficult to order from.

Overall, yes, its a handy machine.

 

[deema]

An oscillating bobbin helps to ensure that any sanding is scratch free and is actually at the angle of the bobbin / table. Without oscillation (the larger the better) the abrasive wears and you get areas where the abrasive gets clogged / is sharper and hence the finish / amount removed varies. Depending on what your doing, depends on how important that is.

Another feature to look out for is the ability to adjust the height of the table or bobbin. This allows the maximum use of the loading. You can turn over the loading, but without height adjustment / making a supplementary table, the middle of the sanding loading is typically left unused.

Dust extraction is difficult on these machines, usually the less you spend the worse it is. A lot of extraction is normally required.

Loadings are a silly price. Carrol drums are expensive, but allow you to ‘roll your own’ loadings from anything you have lying around, hence expensive to buy secondhand.


The Wadkin bobbin sander is the only machine I’m aware of that has as standard bobbins that allow you to ‘roll your own’. If a bobbin sander operation is critical, then you can’t get any better than the Wadkin sanders......but they are big heavy lumps.

 

[Yojevol]

Another feature to look out for is the ability to adjust the height of the table or bobbin. This allows the maximum use of the loading. You can turn over the loading, but without height adjustment / making a supplementary table, the middle of the sanding loading is typically left unused.

My Jet sander has oscillation but no table height adjustment. I maximise the use of the loadings by having supplementary MDF table tops of various thicknesses to raise the height of the workpiece.

 

[sunnybob]

dust extraction on the record bench top bobbin sander falls under the "excellent" range. You can see the dust being dragged dwn the slots.

 

[Spectric]

Hi all

Have looked at using the pillar drill but the oscillations apart from improving abrasive life also provide a better finish just like in ROS's. Noise is not a major issue as it is unavoidable when machining wood, but the manufacturers do like to boast about their machine having an induction motor, at the end of the day a 500 watt motor is 500 watts whether it is induction or syncronous, but the induction motor has no brushes and for a given power is larger.
This will be something that does not get regular use but when it does I need it to do a good job so quality is more important than durability and a tilting table would be advantageous.

I did not realise that Record uses a different spindle for the different sleeve sizes, and only supply the 20 & 50mm ones so it becomes even more expensive as you need to buy the other sizes and corresponding table inserts. Upon closer examination the Axminster also uses the same concept and includes 19, 38, 50 & 76mm sleeves but does not mention if the 25mm is available as an option. If you look at the exploded diagrams in the manuals for the BBS1 & Axminsters AC1400 they do very very similar, the only obvious difference being one has a square table and the other is round but I would say interchangable! The other point is that Record clearly states that to fit the bobbin you turn it anti-clock so a lefthand thread whereas Axminster just says tighten the bobbin so is it left or right? it should be left otherwise the drum would try to loosen rather than tighten so I suspect that the spindles could be the same items.

 

[sunnybob]

Motor size is irrelevant. If youre pushing a piece of wood into a sanding disc hard enough to stall the motor, youre way over stressing it and killing the sandpaper.
If someone can confirm axminster spindles fit the record I would be interested. Trying to buy parts from record is so complicated I have stopped trying.

 

[Spectric]

Hi Bob

If you look at the two manuals, specificaly page 16 of the record manual and page 14 of the Ac 1400 manual you will see more in common than not, they are the same machine but in different colours with different labels. When you think about the threads they will be left handed otherwise as you load the drum the motor will be trying to undo it so moneys on they are interchangable.