I bought this to trim up pen blanks. It does the job vey well. Overall, I may eventually exceed the capacity for this machine but it works great. I hooked it up to my 1 1/4" shop vac (I used duct tape as it didn't fit exactly) and there is no dust at all. I just need to find replacement sanding discs (I'd like to convert it to use hook and loop pads).

I've seen more of these in home shops than perhaps any other small sander. It's a solid little import, well made, with a good sales and support organization (Delta) behind it. One problem: The 36" belt is a little short, particularly if you want to use it with a fint belt for sharpening chisels. There isn't enough space to fit a chisel in, and the platen behind the belt is far too short. I traded mine away and replaced it with a similar unit with a 42" belt. The new owner is using it for musical instrument repair. pBut it's still a fine unit. Modelmakers in particular will get a lot of use from it. You can't spend less and get a decent sander.

I really like this sander. I am a hobbyist knife maker and use it for handle shaping. It is perfect. The only thing I might change on it is the disk, could be bigger. It fits neatly in the conrer of my work bench and is light enough to move around as needed. Replacment belts and disks are easily obtained from woodworking stores.

The fine tool comes equiped with two exhaust ports that "should" connect to a shop vac, but in Delta's wisdom, these ports do not match any standard Vacuum size hose and there is no adapter Accessory to allow you to do so. Silly way to design a tool that makes a mess but it does work fine as a sander.

For the price of this tool I expected it to be a little more finished looking, instead of a import tool with the Delta name pasted on it. Does it work, yes. However, as I found out too late, I could have ordered a 1" belt sander from Grizzly without the 5" disk for $49.00 and would have had an import tool that was green and worked, for $40.00 less.

Great unit, I constantly find uses for it. As someone else pointed out, the dust collection port isnt useful since you cant really hook anything up to it... Also, my power switch is a bit sensitive, you have to find that sweet spot to get it going... Other than that, great little unit.