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The Ridgid R2720 is a good medium duty belt sander that can be used for any number of jobs that require a straight sanding action. I have used it in my cabinet business without a hitch. The reason I bought it was because of the shape of the housing.
I don't have a bench sander, so the Ridgid serves as a substitute. Because of the square design, you can lay it on the top and have the sanding surface facing up. This makes it easy to sand items requiring two hands to hold. For instance, sanding the edges of door slabs or drawer fronts is much easier this way as opposed to clamping them in a wood vise and holding the sander.
Some jobs are performed better with a larger sander such as one with a 4"x24" belt, but since I have been using the 3"x21" R2720, I haven't encountered a time when it didn't suffice for any job I had. Having two belt sanders works better when doing production work because you can have fine grit paper on one for fine sanding and an 80-grit on the other for the rougher sanding.
As with any tool, the Ridgid belt sander is better at some jobs than others. If you are interested in buffing a large sheet of plywood to smooth it before you build a piece of furniture, an orbital sander is a better choice. When you are using this sander on a large piece of plywood, you have to keep it moving to avoid eating pits into your wood.
This sander costs about $160, and it will pay for itself many times over if you build cabinets or furniture. It works well on manufactured materials as well as standard wood boards. I haven't found anything about this sander that would make me want to pay more for another brand, and I have used many of them
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