I bought this sander from Tool Crib a few months ago. It wasn't on the Amazon.com site at the time.I went with the open stand because I wanted some storage below. Not sure if that's an option thru Amazon.com.
The sander was easy to set up. The fit and finish was excellent. It runs smooth, though the graphite platen behind the belt sander it somewhat noisy. It seems to have quieted a bit with more use. Bits of the graphite material get all over the place for about the first 15 mins of use but that seems to have taken care of itself.
I found the belt a little tough to adjust as to maintain a given lateral position on the rollers. This is my first belt sander so that might just be due my lack of familiararity with the machine.
The sander has ample power. I have yet to get it to bog down on pine, maple or white oak. The tables are very good. The disk table is machined cast iron and well built. The belt table seems to be pressed from heavy sheet metal but has worked fine for me. It's not flimsy at all. It was fairly easy to square everything up and set the stops. Though on the belt table, I had to leave a little extra gap between the belt and the table because when you tighten the table locks, it seems to pull the table toward the belt. Not a big deal though.
Dust collection is better than I expected. There are sliding panels in the rear of the sander to direct the collection from either the disk or belt sander area. I thought this was good idea. I have a 1-1/2 HP Delta dust collector located about 15 feet from the sander and the combination seems to do a good job at keeping the sanding dust down.
Other than the preceeding minor issues, I think this is a great sander. The value is hard to beat, if not impossible to beat. I find that the sander is very stable on the open stand. It gives me extra storage with a shop-made plywood shelf and saved me a few bucks. Though the closed stand does look nice I though function was more important.
I recommend this sander highly.
