Looks pretty much identical to the Charnwood BD48. The only differences I can see are that the Charnwood is quoted as having a 500W motor, and the manufacturers warranty is 12 months!
Really grateful for this video. You did a great job reviewing this product. I'm close to buying it, but I'm just wondering if this sander suffers from the engine stalling when you apply a bit of pressure. I've found that most sanders like this tend to have this problem and as I want to use it for metal I definitely don't want anything under powered. You've got a sub out of me. Thanks again
My only complaint is the belt slips over time if you leave it tensioned all the time. Otherwise it works well. The disk is direct drive and I can't stall the motor at all.
Thanks Phil. I desperately lack storage and due to a whole host of issues I haven't got around to building the cabinets and drawers. But everything is carefully sorted into plastic boxes and I can find everything. Got the thing bench mounted now but I think I'll be revisiting this in a future video. I've found a few things that aren't in the manual. Anyway see you at MC in a month's time. K.
I concur, looks like the one for precision hobby use as I like to think some of us do. the 550W motor is 3/4HP and is larger than most bench sanders . The disc table looks rigid enough , ive seen some wobbly ones. mitre gauge , ill make one that fits like broth in a basin. For £180 im going for it.
I am always disappointed with the accessories with tools, in particular with mitre gauges. With cast parts you can easily make fine adjustment to them.
Just as a point, the Axminster Craft belt sanders are the exact same tools offered in the Machine Mart Clarke range. The only difference is colour and branding labels.
Nice intro to this kit, thanks. I've just bought one and really like it. However, I could do with some advice on set-up of the belt. Do any of your vids cover how to lock this in place (mine seems a bit loose and slips backwards/away when I offer a job to it - not quite sure what needs tightening!) and how to replace the belt and adjust tracking if necessary?
It sounds like you had the same problem as me. When I get home I'll explain a little more. Just one question for now, did yours have a graphite pad fitted or in the box. It sits behind the belt is one fitted now?
HI BigDonBricks. So I haven't done a follow-up video that explains what I'm going to describe as it took a little while to get to the bottom of the problem. So, at the time of the unboxing I was pretty happy with the performance. To be honest, the disc was the big draw for me. But I began to notice quite quickly that the belt would slip and stop when offering up work as you described. I tried a few tricks with the most successful being some board wax on the rollers - board wax is what surfers use to stop slipping of a surfboard. Anyway around July last year I was looking at the Axminster website and noticed the following article in the manuals section: cdn.axminstertools.com/media/downloads/105245_manual2.pdf This briefly described the problem I was experienced and offered the solution. The graphite pad is around 3-4mm thick and sticks to the metal plate behind the belt when fitted. it takes up some of the slack in the belt and importantly reduced the friction of the belt to back-plate when you press your work against it. I can still get the belt to stall but it takes much more effort. Anyway if you have fitted a graphite pad and you have the belt stalling, or one wasn't included in the box, I would suggest that you contact Axminster for some support. I contacted them a good couple of years after I had the machine explained the problem and they were excellent in getting the parts to me and then helping with the fitting on the phone. I'd be interested in how you get on.
Looks like a nice sander but it's big! I'm not sure about the locking clip for the belt table especially it being only one side. It seems a bit flimsy as the belt will put a lot of pressure on the table. Maybe an adjustable leg under it would solve that problem? If you put anything else in there you're not going to have enough room to work.
There's plenty I've learned since last week when I filmed this I'll probably do a follow-up. If the belt is left flat, you don't actually need the fence.
@@StrawbyteWorkshop I'm not sure about that, you know as well and I do, like table saw blades the belt can grab the wood and hurl it into the wall. Plus the table would help keep everything flat and square if you're rounding over end pieces. I'll look forward to the follow up video to see what you've come up with.
At least this one doesn't slow down whenever you press the wood against the disc, the way the Parkside did. Although you seemed quite happy with the Parkside at the time you did that earlier video, it looked under-powered to me, even for what you demonstrated. Seems a big jump in price, though. Could you not find anything adequate in between? Say around the £100 mark? Thanks for the video.
I wanted a larger disc at least 200mm and that pretty much dictated the price point. I did consider a larger Disc only bench unit at £139 but a combined disc/belt seemed a better option. And similar to Rag 'n' Bone Brown's unit which I've always liked Anyway thanks for the comment.
My AC200BDS arrived yesterday and had a very similar experience to you setting it up. I'm really happy with it's performance but, like you, I'm unhappy with the mitre gauge (as I am with pretty much every mitre gauge I've received with any machine I've bought), I've just drawn up some basic plans to make two from ply and some oak scraps I have lying around. I have the same gripe that you have with it ie. a lot of play, but mainly you can't use it across both tables without re-zero-ing (is that a word?!) for either the disk or the belt. On those grounds I'm going to be making two, one for each table.
Yes the gauge is very poor and I have two gauges (one for each table) as well. I must admit to using the disc much more than the belt, I'm tight for space and have now mounted it on a lazy susan so I can rotate the unit so either the disc or belt is facing me. I'm curious to know if your unit came with the graphite pad fitted to the plate behind the belt, or if you had one supplied with the unit that you had to fit yourself?
@@StrawbyteWorkshop Ah good, great minds and all. The graphite pad came separate and I'm yet to fit it. The lazy susan is a good idea and I think I will make a couple too as also got my hands on Axminsters pillar drill (AC315PD) which I'm yet to unbox.
Carl great video just one point why do you use the right of centre of the disc when sanding? this will tend to pull the wood up. Should use left of centre much safer.
Your absolutely correct. Looking at the footage again the situation arises because the camera is to the right and I'm trying to avoid my hands getting in the way.
Very useful video, and a year later the price is still the same but out of stock atm, I was hoping that you would compare it to the parkside sander, with so many choices in the market choosing which product to buy is never easy and this seems to bridge the gap of low end models and the prosumer models or do I buy 12" disc sander, just not sure which to buy. how is it going a year or so later?
Hi. There really isn't much to compare between the parkside sander and this one. If your choosing a good starter machine then you need to buy the biggest machine you can affort and that's what I sill like about this machine. For the money it has a bigger disk than its competitors. I do find I use the disc way more than the belt sander and I'm sure that if I were to have to decide again I'd be just as happy if I'd bought a larger disc-only sander. I hope that helps. Check out Rag'n'Bone Brown's channel as he's featured a couple of good sanders over the years which are both still available.
@@StrawbyteWorkshop Many thanks for your reply, I have been torn between this and the 12" disc sander, after looking at so many I agree this is a good choice for it's size and price, thanks for helping me decide.
You'll be able to sand/shape soft metals such as brass, copper and aluminum with the supplied disc/belt abrasive. For hard metals such as steel or iron you'll need a different paper. It's not something I've tried so would be sure if you could get the papers in the right sizes for the belt and disc.
Thanks for the great review... I took the punt and I'm pleased. My only bug bear is that the disc plate seems to oscillate in and out (into and away from the machine) a little. I suspect it's not warped but more likely it's been mounted to the central shaft slightly skew whiff. Have you run into this at all and would you have any idea if the central bolt holding the plate on is left hand or right hand thread? I've tried to work it out by direction of rotation vs tightening action but my brain fails me lol... Any suggestions would be gratefully received!
@@StrawbyteWorkshop I've since found out that it is indeed a left hand threaded bolt that's holding it on but I'm wary about removing it without having a spare, just in case. So I've contacted Axminster by message but don't think they'll be in touch until Monday at the earliest. But for your information it's worth noting that it's a reverse thread if you ever need to remove the plate on yours.
You're not wrong. The lack of a second quadrant and knob on the right-hand side isn't great at all. I probably should revisit this machine because what wasn't clear at the time I made the video was that it was missing a bunch of parts, including the graphite pad to go behind the belt. When I say missing, I don't mean the forgot to put them in the box, I mean they didn't bother manufacturing them and the belt was frankly useless. A number of calls to Axminster got a resolution but I had to re-make my own table to give me support on both sides. It's okay now - just.
Hi Stephen - the 10 degree from vertical angle you see is really only my preference. The belt can be positioned 90 degrees to the bench or dead-flat too. I hope that helps. Karl
@@StrawbyteWorkshop very much so! my old belt sander burned out and ive been looking for 'the right one' to replace it with, this looks like its going to fit the bill nicely! cheers
We recently bought this one, AXMINSTER PROFESSIONAL AP150BS BELT SANDER - 230V Bloody awful bit of kit, instruction are completely useless and the whole thing will just not fit together properly.
Thanks for your comment as it's a reminder that I should probably a follow-up on this sander as it's not been app plain sailing over the last 3 years. I had to look up your machine and see that it has the same table style as the one featured in this video with a single 'quadrant' for adjusting the angle which is terrible and on mine I've had to make a small modification to get the table to not sag in the unsupported corner. I still buy their stuff but always go look at the kit first in the showroom. If it looks at all dodgy with all the fiddling and prodding it gets from prospective customers, then it's probably not going to be a good experience at home.
What a pity you only buy Korean-built cars whilst the UK is losing tens of thousands of car manufacturing jobs........ (You blanked out your Hyundai reg plate, then showed it clearly in the next shot!) Sander-wise, great vid!
The blanking was to protect my neighbours reg - personally I couldn't give a stuff. Seems to anger everyone when I don't. As for my ix35 - it was built in Slovakia. Which is close enough for me. The sander you liked was from a fantastic British success story, but made in China.
