# What's with HF? Took a chance, yet another gem!



## olddutchman1 (Oct 18, 2011)

Hello Paul! I have found out that They do have a few very good tools. I started a large remodel on Our home, and being about 56 years old, didn't want to buy the best of the best. I found out that some tools were better than others, and some I would consider throw-aways. They also were selling recondishioned tools. I bought a router, 3 piece, snd I like that and have used that a lot. Also bought a Sawzall, and have used that quite a bit. I now am 67 years old, and My disability has worsened, so I bought the 12 in. clamps, figuring that they might work, or not. They cost $1.99 , and for that money I bought six. When I went to use the clamps, I was presently surprised with the way they worked. They are nothing like whe american counterpart, but work nicely for the clamping I do. The edges were smooth, and I roufted them up with a wrasp, and they will hold pretty good. I don't have much strength, so for the price I could not be happier. Wish you well, and it must be nice to be able to walk through a stor! I have blood clots along with the nerve damage, so I can't take the trip to go to one!


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

God bless you for still working wood and staying young! At least at some other stores they have the ride around carts.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

There's nothing magical about a belt sander but when you need one, you do need a horse. For one of those rarely used tools i like the idea of this one. Thanks for the nice write up and review.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

HF has some good tools that are real bargains but some of their tools are not worth having. Thanks for the review.
This sander looks like A PC knock off.


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## TheOldTimer (Dec 13, 2009)

It looks like a PC that I had, make sure that you remove the bearing plates and oil the sleve bearings once and a while. I doubt that it has ball bearings.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

Good feedback Old Timer. Will do!


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## rainymountcraftsman (Aug 31, 2009)

only time will tell with HF tools. I do find that there screwdrivers with the orange and green handles are not bad.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

I am watching this review. Tennessee, please keep this updated as you get to using it more. I am wanting a belt sander, and really want one that has the same size belt as my Ridgid benchtop unit. This is one of the few out there that are not multi hundreds of dollars… I don't really need fancy in a belt sander, just reliable…


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

Well, I've only used it a couple times so far, but it does not seem to heat up, runs freely after turning it off, (always a good sign of good alignment and bearings), but I will say this doggone thing is heavy. You do not have to press down on this one. Also has a nice, long cord with a decent wire size, not one of those chintzy cords that often come with HF tools. You probably will also have to fix the dust collector bag, but once I got the wire tie on, all was good. Better have your stock down good to your bench before you turn this on. I also thought it good since I also have the Rigid sander, and have a lot of those belts lying around.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

Update:
Today I had to rebuild a pickguard for a guitar I am building. My Grizzly spiralhead planer only goes down to about 3.75MM, and I need 3MM for my thickness. Instead of making a sled with sticky tape, decided since the pickguard was redheart would just sand down .75MM and move on.
Had the wood sitting on one of those shelf liner sticky things we all use to hold wood, and a towel was spread out nearby, from working on the actual guitar.

Long story short, I touched the sticky thing with the running belt, and it sucked the sticky liner sheet and about 8 inches of the towel into the drive roller area of the belt sander so fast I could not get my finger off the trigger quick enough. We're talking about one second or so. Totally jammed, I realized that I was going to have to dissasemble.

Here's what I found:
The main drive roller is mounted on a hardened shaft, stepped into a fairly stout needle bearing well mounted in solid magnesium, and it has a woodruff key insert that allows a fully steel reduction gear to mount on with a C clip on the motor drive side. That steel gear is mated to a smaller steel gear, also mounted in stout needle bearings, and it connects to a fiber layered rubber cog belt that goes up to the motor under all the covers. Overall, quite a stout system, and it was properly mounted, fully greased, and once I took it all apart to remove the towel, I added a little grease just for the heck of it, put it all back together, and it ran just fine.
I also found out why the dust collector is so terrible. It has a great impeller that puts out quite a fair amount of CFM for a small dust collector, but the chamber is a cheap plastic housing inside, and the magnesium chamber outside is split in half, (built this way), so there is really no way this is not going to leak dust with this kind of CFM pushing through. Vacuum is recommended.
Other than that, I was pleasantly surprised at the stoutness of the unit, and once I got it back together, it ran fine and I completed my little task in a couple of minutes.

WARNING:
I had to cut off my belt, which was the original, so I put on a Diablo 80 grit. This thing is so powerful, it grips so well, the whole sander would start to jump and skip a little until the belt wore down a little bit. If you put a Diablo 80 or other aggressive belt on this sander, expect it to really grip, and it will hop. Just be prepared. Otherwise, it hogs off wood like no other belt sander I've seen in recent memory.


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## RussellAP (Feb 21, 2012)

I love mine. First time I used it was on some Hedge. The only tool that could do the job on that slab and get it smooth.


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