Finally received my Rikon Sander this past week.  Used it on a walnut platter with good success.  First impressions are good, although heavier than I expected for such a relatively small tool, but solid feel.  Gerald commented he was unhappy with the life of his cordless sander.  So far the battery has exceeded my expectations, but it's early yet.  Really can't give the battery life a good rating until I've worked it for six months or so.  First impressions are good though, plenty of power, solid feel and good battery.  BTW I use the Abranet 2" sanding discs which I think are the best out there.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/new-wave-2-abranet-bowl-sanding-kit

Yea @Jim from Easy Wood Tools I wound up getting the Neiko 10529A 3/8  inch Close Quarter Power drill for my sanding.  It was on the cheaper side at 37 bucks yes but it will probably be better for heavy duty sanding that I sometimes am doing.  Either way should work fine for me hopefully this is the one that I picked up.  Speaking of which it is out for delivery today....  I didn't want to spend over 60 bucks on something that I could possibly wind up breaking on accident.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XUHA8C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by AndrewB

Finally following up on my Rikon Sander.  I have to give it a total FAIL F-

The charger stopped charging the battery.  After repeated (and I mean 10+ calls) discussions and promises from Rikon customer service, I received on charger in the mail, which also did not work.  Is it the battery?  Is it the charger?  I don't know.  But I do know Rikon has given up on me.  Very disappointed.  I think I am going to return to a plug-in model.

That sure is disappointing, Jim. Looks like I'll be avoiding that product.

55 minutes ago, lew said:

That sure is disappointing, Jim. Looks like I'll be avoiding that product.

Lew.. I was very disappointed  I was telling everyone how happy I was with it, and then it was just gone

3 hours ago, Jim from Easy Wood Tools said:

Lew.. I was very disappointed  I was telling everyone how happy I was with it, and then it was just gone

I have a Job Max in corded and cordless but with the amount of sanding I did early in my turnings it was not worth the trouble to use the cordless so corded got the nod. I also use a pneumatic from Woodturners Wonders for heavier jobs on lathe or platters.

I have an old Dewalt drill driver that is battery powered.  The other day, I could not get the battery to connect into the charger.  The flashing light told me it was a bad battery.  When I turned it over, the battery simply fell out.  I realized that the battery was not pushed into the charger sufficiently, so I pressed down and it worked.  It is a replacement battery that is about 1 year old.  It charged and works fine.  Just had to give it that extra push to seat it in the charger.  

I mostly power sand. If I have tear out I start with 60 grit. If no tear out I start with 120 grit. I sand with 60, 80, 120, 240, 320 and 400. Sometimes I will go to 600. I have 2” and 3” sanding pads.

 

It depends on the wood. On an end grain I've block-sanded with what I have, usually 100 220 320 400 600 1000, maybe 1500 and 2000. (I'm missing 800). Or switch to MicroMesh buffing pads/sticks 1500-thru-12,000.

 

But on flats I might prefer sand to desired finish (translate: remove mistakes), and then return to the scraper, with the final a scraped surface.