Hey Fellas,
  I've been looking into buying a an oscillating spindle sander lately with the intention of using it for knife making, shaping bow handles, and hopefully grind a few bow laminations. Have any of you guys done this; set up a fence and run the lams through by hand on a sled? Any issues with this kind of setup, namely with an oscillating spindle?
  I'd love to pick up a thickness sander, but just can't part with that kind of coin at present for a machine that only does one thing.  

Thanks for the forthcoming advice.
Cheers, Matt

I have the Ridgid O.S. sander and it is a great tool. I use mine mostly for shaping risers. I did try to grind some lams and it didn't do a great job for me. I could never control the feed rate to get good even tapers and it is underpowered for lam grinding. Another point, if you grind much glass with it be sure to use an air hose and blow out the motor as best you can. Mine shorted out the motor after grinding a lot of glass, but luckily it was still under warranty.

You'd be better off getting a drum sander, Grizzly industrial sells a portable one for a good price.

 http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Drum-Sander/G0716

I have two of these and they're nearly perfect.

Hi Mike, I was just considering that same sander and your the third person that said it worked well.
Thanks, Ron

Hi Mike, I was just considering that same sander and your the third person that said it worked well.
Thanks, Ron