Kalamazoo 1SM 1" Belt Sander, 32 lbs, 1725 RPM, 1/3 HP Motor, 1" x 42" Belt, 4" Contact Wheel

first off. this item ships from the manufacturer, not amazon. it sells like a first party item though. in other words i could not leave personal feedback, for the amazingly fast shipping. this item practically got here the next day.as for the item itself. good quality. it feels good to buy something made in the USA. solid motor, solid platen, solid tool rest. not flimsy made in china junk.this sander runs pretty quiet too, and the auto spring tension and tracking adjust are a descent concept. good price too. well... realistic price. you can buy a 50 to 80 dollar 1 inch belt sander, but will sacrifice quality. its 2 pulley system, makes for a tall , vertical belt sander. in other words, remove the platen for slack, and you have a nice grinder for convex shaping. that's good for knife makers.or for precision knife bevels, keep the tool rest on, maybe add a small wheel or angled platen, then add vertical tool rest, then presto, you can have consistent 15 or 20 degree bevels.

I've had this sander for about 6 months... and it has yet to disappoint me. First and foremost, MADE IN THE USA! Solid and sturdy construction, vibration is virtually nil, especially if you utilize rubber mounts like I did when I mounted it to a metal benchtop tool stand. My main use is with knife making, I don't have the room in my 2-car garage workshop for the larger 1x72 belt sander/grinders commonly used, and this compact platform fit the bill perfectly. Belt changing and tracking adjustment is simplicity at it's finest.Being such a straight forward design, it will appeal to the "tinkers" out there that just can't leave well enough alone (guilty). There is a "Horizontal Finishing Attachment" (item HGA) made in the USA and sold by knifekits.com (lots of pics) that adds even more versatility to this sander... a word of warning, while it's not an inexpensive accessory, I'm finding it very useful. I also bought the hinged mounting plate (item SPA-01).I can't really improve on what has already been said in the previous reviews by "tool builder" and "wilson", I'm just adding my 5 star vote with the others to say yes, it is really that good.Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, don't waste your money by first purchasing one of the less expensive 1x42 belt sanders that "looks like it can do the same thing" and expect to achieve a similar level of performance as this tool... isn't going to happen, do it right the first time and just spring for the added $$$'s needed for buying this machine.

The quality of materials on this tool are really good. It runs really smoothly however, the tracking system, while simple can not be used while the machine is on, where as my delta model you can track while it is turned on which is much more handy. The other problem I have with this is that the tool rest and platen are sitting so close to the motor that I can not really work well on it because i keep running into the motor, this machine would be excellent for small pieces, but anything bigger than 4 or 5 inches can wind up coming in contact with the motor while you are working. I will be taking atleast a hundred dollar hit when I sell mine off.The platen works great if you are working from the right side, but if you want to work from the left forget about it (unless you are using the slack of the belt to work). I bought this for knife grinding, it is not a great knifegrinder. If the platen and tool rest sat a little higher I would be giving it 5 stars, because the quality of it is great.I may be under rating this because I bought it for the wrong pupose, but I can say if you are shaping or grinding long pieces and you need to use the platen, then this is not the tool for you. Otherwise it is simple, well built, and will last you for years to come.

I purchased this on Jan 3rd 2011 and it arrived 3 days later with standard shipping, which was a nice turnaround time. It was fully assembled right out of the box (I think with 80 grit belt). I bought it with the primary use of sharpening a camping ax and kitchen knives, pocket knives, etc. (found a very helpful guide on youtube, search for "neilson mountainhollow". I plugged it in and turned it on and found it to be pretty quiet, about the same as my bench grinder, and belt was aligned already. I used it to sharpen a couple axes which were dull and chipped, within a few minutes they were restored to better-than-factory sharpness. One advantage of using the belt sander over the grinder is it doesn't "hollow" or concave grind...on the flat backup plate it will leave a flat grind, and if you sharpen just above the plate, the belt wraps around the blade slightly and leaves a convex grind which is desirable for knives and axes. The belt never slowed and the motor seemed plenty powerful to handle the load, which admittedly was pretty minor. I was worried about the metal blade edge heating and losing its temper during sanding, but it was cool to the touch throughout the area of the blade I was grinding. I'm waiting on a few sanding belts and a leather honing belt from Lee Valley tools and then will try it out on the knives.