And we found a favorite: the Ryobi BD4601G 4-Inch by 36-Inch Belt/Disc Sander, which offers a large flat sanding surface plus a 6-inch sanding disc. It excelled in our hands-on sanding tests.

If you've ever gone shopping for sanding discs, ... Each product tested was a 5-inch, 120-grit disc and the testing rig was set to apply exactly 10.78 pounds of pressure.