You are still going to have the angles between the strips to take down so you are not alleviating yourself of all that much sanding. It may be a good device for thininning the strips. Some crafts that require very thin wooden pieces use a sanding machine to get stock down to specs. $700 is a lot of jack unless you are going to bang out a lot of boats/guitars/whatever that requires thin wooden sections.

: I am getting ready to build my second Wee Robbie double paddle
: canoe. I have just purchased a Performax(Jet) 1020 sander. After
: cutting the strips, I plan to run each side thru the sander to a
: finish of .188 thickness. I think having no blade marks and
: uneveness in the strips will save a lot of time in the final
: fairing and finishing. I have two more operations to get out a
: strip and I spent $700, am I crazy?
: Bob Drew