Jumping up from the cheapo 4x36 from harbor freight, this thing met just about every expectation. So yeah, you reading this wondering what's missing from the description and pics? This is what you're looking for.Build quality is great. The plastic housing is that fuzzy feeling plastic, and it's sturdy enough that when you give it a nice slap (you know the one) it doesn't feel hollow and it doesn't have any 'give'. I was surprised. The arm comes with a smaller Platten you can screw into the main Platten to get those notches on knife blades that separate the tang from the blade. The guard/vacuum port at the bottom of the arm has thumb screws for easy removal, and I just keep it off because I switch belts frequently.There are 3 pairs of threaded holes on the side of the arm for mounting the table at various heights, or custom jigs if you make them. Annoyingly, the cast iron "table" that comes for the arm wasn't able to be adjusted square without grinding the mounting bracket slightly, and it's less of a table and more of a platform. Said "table" has no markings of any sort to get a specific angle or any stops for 90, you need to use a square or protractor to get the angle you desire. But it's completely usable with a machinist square. Keep in mind that's my only complaint with the arm, everything else is great. No wobble, great tracking.On to the disc: I use it less than I do the arm. It's using a Velcro backed disc instead of PSA, and I have yet to find an 8" replacement locally (though they do exist online). The nature of 'hook and loop' discs is that they may not sit exactly flush and have some give, so I may swap them out.The table for the disc side is aluminum, and reminds me of the cast aluminum tables on Craftsman stuff from the 80's. Not bad at all. It comes with a miter gauge that is pretty solid, and has angle gauges on both sides of the table. My biggest complaint here is that the dust collection guard below the table is plastic, and they ship the unit with a metal guard over the top of the disc to protect it that they instruct you to discard- I hope bucktool will consider swapping that plastic material for something metal, as with only a few uses the guard caught fire, melted into the path of the disc, then rubbed until that part fell off (Note: the guard on the belt arm is made of metal).Now onto the power. I have my unit sitting on an osb table top, not bolted down. I tried to see how hard I needed to press into the belt to get it to stall, and it scooted the machine instead of stopping it. So it definitely has the oomph to get what you need done. There's no wobble while it's running either.So what's my overall opinion on this thing? I'd say that for the money, this is probably the best 4x36 grinder you can get. I know you can spend more on other brands like jet, but I don't think any of that additional cost is going into materials. The additional 1/4 hp from the standard bucktool grinder is probably worth the jump in cost alone. So if you're hesitant about pulling the trigger, I say go for it. It's worth it.
