Matanuska,
Here is what the Shopsmith online catalog says about the Strip Sander.
Save Hours of Tedious Hand Sanding, Grinding and Sharpening with the Shopsmith Strip Sander!
This Versatile, Compact Machine Works Equally Well With All Types and Shapes of Materials. The Strip Sander is an often-forgotten, value-priced workshop addition that will save you countless hours of tedious hand work on a variety of woodworking tasks, as well as grinding, sharpening and polishing of chisels, other workshop edged tools and garden implements of all types.
I do have the Strip Sander. Before I got mine, I wondered the same thing, "what I’d use it for." It didn't take long to find out the answer.
For mine I also have the Chisel Sharpener Attachment (SKU 555812 for reference) which I like the best for sharpening Lathe Chisels. I had been using the Chisel Sharpening Guide with the Disk Sander.
I find it works well for sanding smaller items that you may not want to do on the regular 6" Belt Sander, a Sanding Drum or the Sanding Disk. It can use both 1/2" and 1" wide Sanding Belts. There are grits ranging from 60 to 600 if I remember correctly. It comes with both straight 1/2" and 1" Platens plus a curved Platen. It gives you a lot of versatility for sanding projects. It can have the belt threaded through the middle of an item for sanding the inside of a shape. I find it can get into tight spots for sanding that other machine sanding methods like a Drum Sander cannot.
