Ryobi Detail Sander

I picked one of these up at the Home Depot for $29.00, a Ryobyi Detail Sander. It works reasonably well and comes in handy for sanding small items like the puzzles, where even the 1/4 sheet sander is a little cumbersome. The sander is fairly quiet as sanders go, and doesn't vibrate excessively on the operator end. The sander doesn't raise big clouds of dust so it's perfect for small sanding chores inside.

The commercially made sanding angles are a little pricey for what they are, approx. 2" triangles. I chose to go the shop made route. I used some of the 180# and 220# commercial grade paper I bought from Klingpor's (See Tue.4/29/08 posting), I applied double sided tape to the back of the paper and traced around one of the sanding angles that came with the sander, then cut them out with a pair of scissors. This doesn't take up a lot of time and saves lots of money, something you can do watching your favorite T.V. program.

All and all, it's a nice little sander for the money. Keep in mind no to push to hard, as the sander orbits in 3mm arcs, let the machine do the work. The sander comes with an odd assortment of abrasives, especially when they remind you that it's a detail sander, one looks like 50# grit, which is definetly not my choice for finish sanding. The sander seems to work best when you choose abrasives of 150# and higher, works really nice at 220#, 240# and 320#. The sander can also use and comes with scuff pads, polishing pads and can also use an opptional scraping attachment (not supplied).

The Ryobi Detail Sander will never replace the Fein Muti Master, but it won't set you back $300 bucks either. It's a nice little sander for the hobbist or ocassional D.Y.I'er, for the professional trim carpenter or cabinet maker/installer the multi master is probably still the weapon of choice.