Reply by Jerry

We owned a craftsman sander that looked just like the one pictured in your post. Sorry, but my take is less positive then dhazelton. I got it off of CL for around 75.00. I fabricated a stop as mine did not have a stop mounted on the edge sander portion. We bought it to sand our door edges and other various edge sanding duties. It did not work for us as the weight of even smaller sized doors would cause the sander to struggle and bog down. I figured the weaker motor was just not strong enough. Maybe the belt was slipping, not sure. But it just did not work out so we let it go.

You could give it a try and if it did not work out you could always sell it and look for something stronger.

As for the 1940s version, I believe most things built in the early to mid 1900s was built with a certain quality in mind. So I would have not doubt that the same or similar unit built in the 1940s was a piece of quality. I tend to prefer some of the older American machinery myself.

-- Jerry Nettrour, San Antonio, www.topqualitycabinets.net