Craftsman  1/4 hp 120-volt 2.6 amp Portable Oscillating Spindle Sander (21500)

I'd been using a 3/8 drill with sanding 1 1/2 inch mandrel. Then I used benchtop drill press with 2 inch long spindles. When I saw this in the store, only one they had, I grabbed it. It is a great little machine. You do need a tool stand for it & be sure to hook up your shop vac to the dust port. I've run it 3 hours today with no problems whatsoever.

All of the hardware is attached to the heavy duty top plate which is constructed our of cast metal. The rotation and oscillation is smooth. The base is plastic and hollow which does make it a little noisy. A little spray foam around the inside of the base helped improve the noise issue. For the money, this oscillating drum sander is a good value for the home work shop.

I just picked up the Craftsman Oscillating spindle sander about a month ago. I had read all of the reviews on Sears.com and decided that it would suit my needs. I set it up once I got home and gave it a try on some 3/4 inch thick clear pine and it quickly and quietly provided a smooth, snag free finish! The motor did not bog down at all and it made short work of the piece. As shown in the picture it comes with five drums, inserts and sleeves. A great deal at the normally advertised price, but even better when the one I picked up was marked down to $188.00. As always my Sears associate (Chuck) was very knowledgeable and helpful and made it a smooth transaction. Thanks Sears/Craftsman for another fine product.

I mainly use this machine to shape contours and shapes in my artwork and it does it flawlessly, it has enough power to sand down most hardwoods to create the shape you want and reliablity to work all day without failure, I have recommended this to a friend and they enjoy it as much as I do.

Great oscillating spindle sander unit to have and very usefull in the workshop. Spindles are your basic hard rubber for that sturdy sanding and easy interchangeable sleeve process. This sander could have used some sound absorbtion material to reduce that bit of noise but you can easily add this to the hollow shell if you need to. The large table platform is just great and allows you a full work area to manage your material. Although the monster gray shell feels 'plastic-y' it is quite sturdy and does a great job all around. This spindle sander does stand tall as well so some to most stands will make it sit very high to use comfortably so keep that in mind. You will also need some very long screws or bolts to fasten this unit on a workbench and recommend hand tightening wingnuts as using a regular nut with a socket or wrench may overtighten and risk cracking shell (6" to 7" bolts is what I used). Exhaust port is very handy as well and does a good job.

Online and in the Catalog it really doesn't appear to be such an oversized item, but it's quite large and well worth it's table size. Once you turn it on it's also very quiet for a woodworking device and it does the job to an extent. If your looking to cut on the outside of your line and final shape it with the 21500 your going to need to go get you some new sanding sleeves with a rougher grit.(Find Included) The ocillating amount is just enough while the speed/rotation is also just enough too. If your looking for a 1/4" spindle size your not finding on this unit as other high end similar sanders offer, but you can make due. Finding a stand for this particular sander is challenging but your local parts store might have something to make one up or just use a universal stand and mount some 3/4" ply on it and done! All in all I would recommend the 21500 over the new Ridgid, but the Ridgid does have the Lifetime Warranty Option. Wait it out for a $ALE price though. 4 - Stars just because it could be better and so could the Warranty.

This sander is great, better than I imagined.  I feel this is a well built machine, plenty of power, and quieter than expected.  Well balanced, minimal vibration.  I looked at others, and chose the Craftsman based on past experience with brand and could not be happier.

The sander is quite and runs smoothly.  It is still new and have only used it a few times but thus far am pleased with the performance.  One gripe would be the dust port, it is sized for connection to a Sears wet/dry vacuum, so my Shop Vac hose didn't connect (would be nice to have some standardization here), after fooling with several adapters was able to make a connection.

With only 2 reviews, (1 good and 1 bad), I wanted to give another opinion for those interested in this tool. If you are like me, you like to find several reviews on a tool before you purchase it. I can tell you with confidence that this tool is worth having if you need to sand curved parts. I have owned this tool for over a year, but had only used it lightly on some small projects. That is until this past week when Idecided to make 4 queen ann legs for a table that I am building. After cutting them out on my band saw, I took the legs over to my sander and used the 3" sleeve to smooth all the curves and then to round over all the square edges. After that, I used it to round off the bottom where the leg sits on the floor. It would have taken me forever to have hand shaped those with a rasp and then smooth with sandpaper. This tool made easy work of it and I agree with the other reviewer that it is quiet and clean when hooked up to my dust collection system. Take the 1 star review with a grain of salt...the purchaser should have demanded a replacement part or taken it back to sears for another unit. A bad part shouldn't sway your decision on the fact that this is a great tool to have if you don't want to spend hours sanding by hand on those difficult curved pieces.

I'm not sure what the previous reviewer had in mind. The unit I received weighed in at 52 pounds. Within 10 seconds after turning it on, it made a grinding and chattering sound. I called the phone number on the sheet that came with the unit and was told I needed to lubricate some gears and bushings. Which I was willing to do, I need this tool. Lubrication didn't work, I decided to remove the plastic cover. With the unit upside down on my bench, I turned it on and found the problem, ( item # 14 on the parts list)after drowning the bearing with oil, the noise went away...for awhile. The folks at the service center were helpful, but this is suppose to be a new unit...very disappointing The awful noise aside, it seems to work well, with excellant dust collection