Ryobi BDS4600 Belt and Disc

Lasted 10 mins taken back to Bunnings the same day – 1 star may seem a little harsh to some but I'm afraid that when I say it lasted 10 minutes I'm not exaggerating. My project was/is the making of a small garden side table from a pallet, I wanted to take the rough, nothing extreme, off the 6 pieces that make up the top. I'd done the first 2 but within a second of starting the 3rd the drive belt completely stripped its teeth. I have other Ryobi tools: a drop saw, a band saw and 2 drill/drivers, and I'm extremely happy with them but this sander just had to go back. I'm just a hobbyist but I'll spend another $50 and get one that gets 5 stars from 300+ reviews, even if it does spoil the green colour theme of my garage.

Good little disc sander, lousy belt sander – The disc sander on this works well for rounding off corners on small work-pieces. It doesn't tend to sand flat because the velcro is a bit spongy and therefore tends to round off the work-piece. But the convenience of using commonly available 5" sanding discs make this minor inconvenience insignificant. The table can be removed allowing any built-up dust to be removed or the disc to be replaced and a shop vacuum can be connected to the outlet.

The vertical belt sander is virtually useless. The motor is way too underpowered to use it and therefore causes the motor to regularly stall. Also, the belt regularly vibrates off the rubber wheels causing it to generate a rather annoying resonant frequency, which requires stopping and starting the motor. I've eventually removed the belt altogether to prevent this problem.

In hindsight, it would have been better to remove the belt sander part altogether, providing more power to the disc sander or simply providing a slightly more powerful motor. I guess like any Ryobi tool, it works enough to avoid you taking it back, but only just. Compared to hand-sanding or using a power tool it's much better, but compared to other benchtop sanders, it's about as cheap and nasty as you can get. Having said all that, as a hobby tool for myself, it's worked for over about five years now and does what I need it to do. It all depends on how serious you are about your woodworking.