The only thing I changed was making the area where it interfaces with the sander thicker. In the pics, the walls are 0.050" thick, but after seeing all the flex from the hose forces, I doubled it to 0.100" thick like the rest of the body.
EDIT: If anyone wants a different size hose adapter for this, let me know. It would be trivial for me to make it adapt to a 1.25" or 2" hose.
You adapter looks good. What do you think about the Wen Sander. I bought a Wen lathe stand and in pictures it looks like the Rikon, Nova, Shopfox and Grizzly. I had bought a Grizzly extension and it was rough as a cob. The Wen was made with good welds and a nice power coat finish. Wen makes a lot of entry level tools but I have not seen too many comments about them.
What do you think of your Wen.
You may have a lot of experience with a belt sander but for those that do not be careful. A belt sander can really tear up a project if you are not careful. For my belt sanders I use a 150 grit. They make a lot of 80 and 100 grip papers for belt sanders but unless you are grinding a stump the 150 limits the damage and is still aggressive enough to get a job done.
This is my first hand held belt sander, so I don’t really have a comparison point (yet), but I’ll let you know how it went so far.
The majority of the body is glass filled nylon. The thing is light and appears to be quite rigid in the 1 minute or so I ran it to try out the dust collector adapter I printed. I guess I could see why there was one person on Amazon who claimed it was under powered. You could press hard enough to get it to stall if you wanted to - but honestly - for $40 I am (so far) quite happy with the purchase.
I plan on using the HF method of tool purchasing for this - buy the inexpensive version of what I need. If I break it or outgrow it, then I’ll buy the expensive / durable belt sander that should outlast me.
It came with a 60 or 80 grit belt (I didn’t pay too much attention since I can’t get wood to make stuff, and I just wanted to sand on a scrap to see how it does) and I agree. I think what I want to do with it - which is sand down the tabs on the tabbed boxes I am going to make - I will be better off with 120-150 grit belts. After using this to remove the material, I will transition to my Bosch 5" RO sander for cleanup.
