Side by Side Comparison of: Ridgid vs Black & Decker

Needed one of these to spot strip my painted wood deck last summer and this worked out well with various grit sandpaper. Will use again probably every spring before rolling out the new layer.

Great compact reconditioned belt sander. Used this belt sander immediately upon arrival. Special feature to me is the self-leveling sanding belt tension. Additionally, the drive wheel is gear driven which means it doesn't dig in or stall. Very nice for a so-called-reconditioned sander. Seller shipped immediately and product arrived as scheduled.

I ordered the refurbished model, and was skeptical, as some have had a bad experience. I received it and gave it a thorough inspection. Looked good, fired it up for a project I was working on, and could not have been happier. DIY guys should all have one of these, very specific jobs as they take a lot of material off in a short time, but when you need this, you need it. Very happy, rigid tools always work, I have had great luck with them

i bought this sander reconditioned because i didn't plan on using it very much. It arrived in excellent condition with all of the parts and with the operators manual. i researched a bunch of belt sanders that cost less than $100 and the biggest complaint was the automatic belt adjustment. This one works fairly well, although you'll still get some belt drift, especially if you apply any pressure. I don't really know if there is a complete solution for that though.The device is hefty, feels well-built, is comfortable to hold, and has good speed adjustment. At top speed it sanded down the wood quite rapidly.

Great sander. I bought this reconditioned and it came looking like new. A few little scuff marks here and there but nothing worth sending it back. I used it for the first time and was really impressed.People have said that its underpowered but it does the same job as a more powerful B.Decker that I have.Belt tracking is spot on, It never moved over like my B/Decker which drives me crazy. Dust collection is perfect. Its not that heavy and seems well made and as for noise its quieter than others I have used. So far I love it and for $58 is well worth it.Also th belt that came with it did not break after an hours worth of sanding, unlike my B/Decker which eats belts.So far I am impressed and I am a professional Hnadyman

I bought this mostly for its variable feature and the great reputation of Ridgid power tools. I can safely say I was not disappointed. The first time I used it I restored the rounded corner of a long counter top in my shop which I had damaged testing a nail gun. This sander has enormous power and a solidity normally found only in larger belt sanders. It's more powerful than one of my 3 X 21 inch belt sanders and a whole lot lighter and easier to manuveur on a vertical surface. I've come to appreciate these smaller belt sanders over the standard 3 X 21 inch belt sanders because of their added convenience. I've tried two others besides this one, Makita, and Skil, and like this one the best. Price wise this was the best value, as the Makita was the same price but wasn't variable, and the Skil cost about half as much, but had some tracking issues. The variable Makita 3 X 18 inch belt sander was more expensive. Ridgid is tops for delivering consistent quality, which to me includes the long, lighted cords. With Ridgid you can count on their high quality no matter what tool you buy.

This thing is going to save my arms and my time, and B&D is a name you can trust for quality products/service. I'm very happy with my purchase.

Thanks. He enjoyed it and will be using it for side jobs. Now he doesn't have to borrow one all the time.

Suprise in performance and durability. Great product.

I use it to shave edges for a better fit. It is easy to use just the point of the sander to shave small variances.

Excellent tool for a bargain price (I bought refurbished).The auto centering feature works exactly as advertised, completely removing that frustrating battle which I fought continually with my previous belt sander. It is not well suited to use upside down clamped to a bench as the top of the unit is rounded, no flat surface. I think the manual actually says not to use it this way explicitly. However the handle is ergonomic and I was easily able to hold it and use the small protruding belt surface to do fine shaping of some metal parts without wrist fatigue.

So I've been using this for a bit now. I haven't done anything serious with it, except for shaving off about 1/3" off some pine table legs. This little guy has done everything I've asked for thus far, I do see the small issues that other people have been talking about, but they're either using the wrong tool for the wrong job OR the're expecting too much out of a piddly little sander like this. Put it this way, it will take the paint/stain/first layer off of paint easily depending on what type of paper you use no problem. Also, I have seen no automatic tracking issues with the belt. So far so good, but if it breaks after sanding my entire house, I'll be sure to complain!Update-- I recently shaved about an inch off of 4 oak legs (lengthwise) in order to level two pieces of 2x4. It took me over an hour with this thing running full blast the entire time. I'm not sure why people are complaining, but this thing rocks.

Works well but feels slightly underpowered after using a bigger one my whole life. It does not have much acceleration at first either.

Works VERY well after you get the hang of it, which takes a bit of time. The only complaint is that the dust catcher (which worked well initially) hardly works at all now. I asked Ridgid about that but their Customer Support Dept never responded.

I received my reconditioned Ridgid belt sander and it worked very well. The belt tracking finger adjustment screw works very well and easily adjusts the tracking. Replacing a belt was a snap with the easy pull lever. The only issue I had was the belt sander will leave "grooves" in the wood if you use it incorrectly and don't keep it level on the surface. This was my error as I was sanding an overhead wooden beam and let the sander get out of level.

This belt sander has stood up to some very hard use. I have run it for several hours at a time. While running, it gets quite warm, but the cooling fan doesn't let it get hot. It was shipped clean and with a new 80 grit belt. I am quite pleased with the sander.

I have no real complaints about the sander, other than the fact that it seems like you spend more time adjusting the tracking than you do sanding. It does a great job, don't get me wrong. I used it to sand some uneven boards on a truck bed, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with the tracking issues. Where it was level, the sanding belts seemed to track just fine. All in all, I would have to say it does just what it's supposed to do. Mine did have a few dings when I got it, but after all, it was reconditioned and not new.

I have no beef with this grinder - it is quite powerful under more pressure than you should reasonably put on a belt sander, tracks fairly well, has inexpensive belts available, and is comfortable to use. I would buy it again if I had it to do over, but I wouldn't buy it from CPO. The sander arrived filthy, covered in sawdust and swarf. It seemed that they didn't even have time to blow it off with an air nozzle when they got it back in, let alone be bothered to actually recondition it. Granted it worked, but a little offputting when the sander arrives with no packing material dropped in the bottom of a box two times too large, all filthy and greasy. Prior user must have had some really dirty hands when he was using it. If I had to rate CPO I would give them a 1 star rating just because it saved a few bucks, and give the sander itself a solid 4.

Can't speak on longevity but nice sander for the cost

Works well. Belt rides true, no movement at all. Has plenty of power to sand very well and will easily drive 24 grit belts. Id recommend it for small areas and edge work where a heavy 4x24 pro sander is heavy to handle.

I bought this for my husband, and he really likes it! It's a great value!UPDATE: My husband used it today, and the belt burned up. It was cheaper to replace it, than to buy very many belts. Sad! I don't recommed it unless you're not going to use it very often!

Light but powerful. Easy to use. Belt installs quickly and remains on the roller. The only problem is the sanding bag, which is poorly designed and does not remain on the sander when in use.

Only problem is that the anchor for the collection bag broke. But otherwise it sands great.

I like the smaller nose, able to get closer to an edge with it. Appears to overheat and briefly shutdown when doing long sanding jobs. "Lock on" button hard to reach, it is recessed. May be a safety factor, but still a pain to reach when running. Bottom plate does not seem to be perfectly flat, when sanding large previously painted panels to rough them up for repainting, there is an area that is completely sanded out from some point in the middle of the plate Does well for rough material removal and medium grit sanding, I'm not as pleased when using "fine" papers because of this.

Doesn't have the power I hoped for. But, does the job.

Good sander. It held up over many hours of usage. The bag is really too small for big projects; however the dust exhaust fits your shop vac so that helps. Its a bit cumbersome but it works. The hot air blown out the front is something to watch for as it will remind you that it is there often. I found it handy to quickly blow off areas where dust had accumulated when the shop vac hose fell out of the dust exhaust port. The belt tracks well. I found that the belt it came with to be very cheap. The manual tracking helped a little but the auto tracking did fine. The rollers where not true which was an annoyance but it worked well enough.

Worked ok but i expected more with it being a Heavy Duty belt sander.

OK for light work. Motor is weak and bogs down fast.

I guess for the price and it being a reconditioned unit the sander is ok. It just doesn't have very much umph to it. It has a soft start, which I was not familar with and it takes time to get used to it. I bought it because I own other Ridgid products and have been very satisfied with them. I guess it will do for some light applications, but for fast heavy material removal it is lacking. I'm familiar with Makita beltsanders and that's what I'm basing my conclusions on. Maybe it is just this sander, but I was a little dissappointed.

It works but the belt doesn't spin very fast even on the highest setting. This is my first belt sander and I'm pretty underwhelmed. The belt that it came with was utter junk. I replaced it with a 40 grit quality belt and it worked a little better. However, it really doesn't sand much faster than using my orbital sander with 80 grit paper. It's also much easier to mar the wood or sand uneven. As a result, I don't use it that often.

Doesn't really sand evenly. If you were to only sand the same spot and not move it, most of the area wouldn't get sanded. But it is light.

Works ok for the price.

Yes for little work

As others have written, the belt slips under heavy use.Fine for the price, but just that. If you really need something to go to town with, go up a couple of price points. This is strictly a honey-do lightweight sander.

Tried it for a test run as soon as I got it and the belt kept slipping off. After taking a good look of liver it, I realized that who ever put this together put the front roller on wrong (idiot). After a quick fix I got it working and the belt no longer slips off. Over all fairly decent product.

This is a pretty good sander for the Money it costs. Not a professional grade but good for occasional use

It worked well for a while and then started making load groaning noises under load. It's going back.

Plenty of power, great variable control. Cord 8 foot not 12. Constantly have to keep adjusting paper belt for it to track straight and true.

Received the first unit D.O.A. and covered in sawdust. Return was pretty straight-forward, but I did have to take it to a special Fed-Ex dropoff 20 miles away. The replacement unit arrived and was also covered in dust and obviously well-used, but appears to work so far.Bottom-line, these "refurbished" units appear to be just returns at the store that weren't even wiped off before being dropped in a box and shipped out as refurbished. If the person returned it because they didn't like the color, then you luck out, but odds are, if it was returned, it had a bigger problem.I'd spend just a bit more for a brand new unit that wasn't all beat up if I were doing it again.

Easily rocks side to side since its only 3 inches wide. Has a lip on edge of the roller so cannot use on wide boards. I wish I hadn't bought this item.

grippy roller covering disintegrated on first use. Still works, but shreds belts quickly now. Maybe suitable for very light work, but this style is made for heavy abrasion, not finish work.

To be fair, this device may have been well unprepared for the task I had planned for it. I was looking to sand down a deck patio no larger than 15'X10'. For a weekend's worth of worth, I figured this Black & Decker device would suffice, but I was wrong.A little more than halfway through, all seemed to be going just fine. However, at one point I noticed that there seemed to be resistance as I was moving along, plank by plank. Upon inspecting the sander's belt area, I noticed that the front caster that spins freely to allow the belt to rotate had literally welded itself stationary with a bead of melted plastic that had adhered to the sander assembly. This prevented the caster from being able to move; thus, increased resistance on the sander belt and, in turn, rendering this sander broke.I am highly disappointed in this product as it halted my project and forced to me create more time and expense for a project that, in my belief, was a minor job. For these reasons, I do not recommend this product to anyone whose project extends beyond the occasional, basic sanding in the garage workshop.

I bought this based upon reading some other reviews of this and other brands. I needed another belt sander, since my Craftsman one finally bit the dust after a few years of satisfactory service. The BR318 seemed to fit my needs, and I was intrigued by the automatic tracking feature. I ended up with a machine that had okay as far as belt tracking went, but while using it I noticed that the belt was prone to touching the plastic on the leading corners. Further, the electric cord was constantly in the way. During an extended period of use, that cord got caught up in the belt, and the unit quit. Fortunately I was able to get it fixed, as the only damage was the cord being sanded through, causing a short. Now I have a short cord, but serviceable. I'll use this unit until it fails, but will look for another brand next time.

The Rigid sander is good, but whatever the problem was that made it have to be reconditioned got passed on to me. It runs fine, then slows down so you cant get anything done. I bought a new porter cable sander that now runs forever, and is quite a work horse. Would not buy reconditioned again.

I've bought 2 of these things so far, and I'll never buy another one. In fact, I may never buy another Ridgid product again. They are factory reconditioned, so in other words, they were broke and repaired. The first one I bought I used a few times (+\- 20 minutes of total use) and then something inside locked up. I thought maybe I just had bad luck and bought another one since the price was so good. The second one ran fine until you tried to use it. The belt would slip under the weight of the machine therefore you made a lot of noise and no dust. Maybe I've just had bad luck, but I've never had these problems with other tools. So my suggestion is that you spend the extra money and get a more established name brand tool if you really want to use it.

I've only use this tool three times and already sounds like the bearings going out. When you hit to trigger a loud screeching sound happens. I'll never buy another reconditioned tool.

Front roller is made of plastic. When you sand something it creates friction, creating heat, which melted the front roller! Then the belt slipped to one side causing a jam in the machine. Making the beltsander unusable for any future use!

This sander, and it's 3x21" brother, are frought with basic design problems - which are going to cause unnecessary & troublesome maintenance of the sander. After noticing how it leaves more sawdust than it captures in the bag I decided to open it and see if I could figure out WHY... sadly, I discovered it lodged a LOT of sawdust inside the unit body too. My advice, watch some YouTube videos on the maintenance of this sander, and others FIRST!

I bought a piece of s----- sander that looked really nice in pics. Amazon wants 20% to return it. I bought 10 belts from this guy to go with the sander. I ask him if I could sent the belts back since I was returning the sander, NOTHING. Using www.Walmart.com and no problem running a few miles to return things

When I start the sander, the belt immediately wanders right off the wheels. There is no way to adjust it. Tried several times, and each time the belt wanders off. Useless. Returned it.

I was excited to have this sander for light duty honey-do projects. It was very easy to just pull out of the box and start sanding (after reading the instructions, of course.) Within a few minutes (less than 10) of use on a piece of wood, I noticed a tar-like substance on the belt. When it cooled and I removed the belt, I was able to chip the hardened substance off of the belt with some effort. I rotated the belt around for a minute to see if the problem recurred, and to establish if the concern was caused by the belt or the sander. The same thing happened a second time- a 3/8" strip of melted something (black plastic?) appeared on the handle side of the belt. I called Black and Decker, and they are sending me a replacement unit. They said that this is not a known problem with this model. After reading other reviews of this product I have concerns that I will be dissatisfied with the replacement, but will post an updated review if my impression of the sander changes.

I bought this for light duty sanding for home improvement projects. Turns out it's no good. The belts walk about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch, eating up the belt as they go. The belt gets shredded, and I started over with a new belt. Same thing.I went through about 6 belts in just a few minutes and finally gave up. The cost saving of this unit will be offset by the number of ruined belts you'll need to buy to finish your job. Not to mention the time spent changing belts.Just a poor quality tool. Lightweight plastic and no belt adjustment.