Accessories

For tiny, fussy jobs only
I bought this for my son, who makes his own furniture as a hobby. He liked it because it did the small picky details a larger sander wouldn't do. But it splintered and wrecked the plywood shelves I attempted to sand. The sandpaper, having several holes for vacuuming up sawdust, shredded the edges of the wood with every pass. The cut-to-fit paper with vacuum holes fell apart in a few minutes, making me think it must be meant for only the quickest, daintiest jobs. So I went out and bought a bigger orbital sander, able to hold a half sheet of sandpaper WITHOUT HOLES FOR SNAGGING, and finished 60 ft. of shelves in short and excellent order. This small sander is a specialized tool, not an all-around sander for many or large projects. And though it seems nice to vacuum up the sawdust as you go, the strong possibility of chipping and snagging wood with the vacuum holes is not worth it to me, no matter how small and picky the details are of the piece being sanded. If you do enough woodworking to own two sanders, this might be a good second tool. If you want an all-around tool, get the bigger sander, and DON'T use the pre-punched vacuum-ready sandpaper. This little, pointed 5" sander seems to be a current fad; I found plenty. I had a bit more trouble finding a big sturdy one at a medium price.

Sands very well, dust collection worthless.
I picked one of these sanders up to replace an old Makita quarter sheet palm sander that keeps spitting the pad off. while sanding. I like the operation of the random orbit better as it leaves no swirl marks, and makes quick work of the VERY uneven pine stock I am working with. This sander uses a hook & loop type sanding media, so you have to be careful not to pick up the sticky back sanding media for this sander. The dust collection system uses the holes in the mounting pad and with them plugged up you are in for a dust storm in your shop! A quick swap to the right sanding media, full cleaning of the sander, and a retry resulted in much less dust, but still not low enough dust levels to not need a dust mask.

Overall I am happy with the purchase. I do not believe there is a sander out there that has dust collection that works as advertised. This one is as good or better than the competitors in its category.

Kicks butt!!
I have owned this sander for well over a year and have put it through hell. I refinished my kitchen cabinets (75 hours), smoothed the siding on my house for repainting (100 hours) and not to mention the countless things my wife has for me to sand (25 hours). After all that the sander is still kickin butt. Even with a 60 grit paper there were no swirl marks or gouges on any of it. It is very light weight and the vibration is nothing to complain about. There are only two complaints I have 1 is dust collector will not stay on tool and cannot find a replacement hook and loop backing pad for it anywhere. Well I guess that is what you get for the money.

Good value for the money.
I bought this sander a couple of weeks ago and I have used it nearly everyday since. I've been building an end table and a couple of different mantle clocks and have given this sander a pretty good workout. The motor is plenty powerful and I haven't noticed any swirl marks even with the 80 grit paper. I have noticed that it is not entirely dustless since it will get some light dust gathering on the base of the tool but nothing floating in the air. For $40 I don't think you can go wrong with this tool.

Mike in Tennessee