On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:37:32 -0400, Greg G. wrote:

mac davis said:

I have a completely different view of HF.. I love it...
IMHO, you get what you pay for, and a lot of the stuff I buy doesn't
need to be 1st class...
Though I agree that I wouldn't buy lathe chisels, precision tools, or
things like that there, I'm often online ordering their sanding disks
and belts, bench clamps, etc.....
If you are looking for supplies of seldom used stuff, and expect to
get what you pay for (there ARE no free lunches *g*) it's a great
place to shop and they ship free if you spend $50... and it's hard NOT
to spend $50 there.. YMMV (and probably will)

I am a little leery of their motorized things that spin at high RPM.
I did see a set of electric "haircutting" shears that I almost bought
to shave the dog with... I was afraid they would just entangle the
hair and stall, leaving us with a dog with a huge bald spot from where
we had to cut the Chinese POS from her coat... ;-)

snip rant.. you're preaching to the choir)

I've used and abused my sander for almost 3 years now... never had a
problem, especially with the motor..
I've sanded things that were too big and/or heavy for it several times
and it seems to have lots of power..

My budget was small and my sanding not precision, so at the time (and
I'd do it again) the choice was a craftsman 4" belt/6" disk bench
model or the HF 6" x 48" belt/9" disk with floor stand...
The HF sander was $10 more than the Sears one, so it was "bang for the
buck"..

I've had to made a better table support for the sander, but I might
have had to for the sears one, too.. the idea of maintaining a 90
degree level with a set screw on a rod just doesn't cut it..