I¡¯ve been considering a widebelt sander for quite some time. Unfortunately I have severe access constraints given my shop is in the basement. This has basically limited me to very small widebelts or drum sanders. So I was happy to read about the Felder 850 when it came out. I was a bit suspect on several aspects of the design so I held off until I could see one in person. Last November I visited the Felder office in Delaware and got a chance to run some material through it while their widebelt specialist from Italy was in town for training. Yes, it¡¯s definitely a light build meant for a hobby shop. But I walked away impressed with what it could do. I ran multiple passes with oak and maple rough stock I brought down. I couldn¡¯t find any perceptible snipe or rounding of the edges when checked with a steel straight edge, a common issue with low budget sanders. I didn¡¯t take one home since I thought it was a bit overpriced. However, last week they reached out and let me know Austria was running a promotion on 2 new units. Discounted from 16 to 11.5k. At that price I figured it was worth a shot. Figured I¡¯d pass this on in case there is anyone else here on the fence. Ask for Jesse in Delaware and he should be able to reserve the second unit for you. I was told they will be here in early May.
