Sanders Reviews

I am a contractor who recently started my own business and have been buying a lot of tools. I used the Porter Cable belt sander before and loved it but figured DeWalt was great brand so I bought this sander. In as few words as possible; I hate it! I mean I really do not like using it and here's why:

Cons
-Belt tracking doesn't work and I am constantly watching it instead of my work to make sure the belt doesn't work its way to one side and shred itself. I have had many belts get shredded and as a result damaged the wood I was sanding.
-Dust collector is poorly attached; bag falls off too easily causing dust to blow everywhere in a matter of seconds.
-Dust collection system gets clogged and I find I have to constantly blow it clean with a compressor.
-Comes in a ridiculously HUGE case. It's great if you bought the stand with it (unlike me) since there's room for it. It's so big I also keep a palm sander, 2 8" quick clamps and a lot of extra belts (you'll need them).


Pros
-The only pro I can think of is that it looks cool.

Ben

Had 3 of these....they where all problems. The first one lasted 2 weeks when the maib drive wheel broke. the next two broke to many belts....I used 3m belts and it didnt matter after 5 min the belt would break. I couldn't afford to keep replacing belts so after the 3rd unit I bought the portercable 352vs. I still have the same belt on it. The Dewalt feels solid and weighs a ton but is the worst tool I have ever owned.
DW

But I am a serious homeowner (the kind of person who goes to real supply houses and talks to real tradespeople - rather than the guys at HomeDespot). If you're a contractor, trust what the contractors say. If you're a homeowner, read on...

I look at a belt sander as a consumable purchase, so for me it was a function of doing the jobs I need done before it cooks. If you do enough heavy work with it, eventually you will kill it. With that disclaimer, here's my 2 bits on this. I bought one re-conditioned and without the case.

I have had no problem with either dust collection or belt tracking and have probably run it for the equivalent of about 40 hours doing heavy (36 grit) stripping. The beast gets hot and eventually your arms get tired, but I have not hurt it yet. Was it worth the money vs. stripping by another means? Absolutely. If I needed to do it again, would I buy the same tool? Absolutely.

I like the three wheel design and adjustable handle. And, as mentioned in another review - it does look cool.

This product and all its attachments are great examples of the creativity of German Craftsmen. They all do what they are intended to do, BUT they don't last. The quality of the blades and other accessories belie the above statement.
I have been using these tools for over 3 years, and every time I do ,I say a prayer that someone/ anyone will improve on the quality! Maybe Festool will. They seem to get it and are building products anyone will be proud to own!

I'd like to agree with the other reviews on Fein: great tool funky blades. Can Lenox or Starett make blades for the MultiMaster?

All the reviews of this and similar Fein blades are true; they cost a lot and they are fragile and easy to break. I am now faced with the prospect of replacing some of my broken and dull blades and I am willing to pay the price because I must. I have invested over a thousand dollars in blades and sandpaper for the Multimaster and the capabilities that having this kit gives me are too numerous to mention. My advice is to use this particular blade as a last resort, those few instances when no other method can perform the task without risk of peripheral damage to the valuable stuff that we tradesmen and tradeswomen have to cut into. Fein blades are like auto insurance; they are an expensive burden when you don't need them but when you do, you will be very glad that you have them.

After using orbital sanders for years I decided to get the random orbit. I have been a big fan of Dewalt and did not hesitate on purchasing this tool. The dust collection for the most part does not work. The sanding qualities are first class. But six inch paper is hard to find. But I stocked up when I bought the sander. I have had to replace the switch after it quit working. Overall It sands well but fails in the dust collection department. Dewalt could do better.

A six inch random orbital sander is intended for rapidly removing material from large surfaces (eg. table top). It is not a detail sander and should not be expected to be lightweight and agile. Use the right tool for the job. I am very happy with mine. It does a very good job of quickly sanding large areas. Unlike the competition (from a certain black/grey company), this sander provides integrated dust collection. The reason I only gave it 4 stars is two fold. First, the gear mechanism makes a grinding noise (like it is going to break). My Dewalt biscuit jointer made a similar noise, but has lasted for years. Second, the variable speed has a very narrow range of speeds (ie. highest speed is really fast, lowest speed is still really fast).

We use this DeWalt Random Orbital as a polisher for vehicles. The unit comes with the velcro fastener required for professional polishing pads. The unit is balanced and easy to use for a long period. The results have been outstanding. It is recommended by our supplier of professional polishing products.

Hitachi states this sander "includes the most efficient dust collection system in its class." This may be true but not without the punch plate or a home built punch system. It isn't a system unless all the parts are there. Unlike another sander I have, the dust collection holes aren't cut to the outside for use with non-holed sandpaper.
I did use the sander for a project and it worked well but obviously the residual mess was an issue. The sander will now sit unused until I obtain or make a punch system.

I purchased at $44 and soon found out the punch plate is not included. It's a rip, and Hitachi should be forced to suck the pipe for trying to bleed more money from their own consumers. It's not a good way to build brand loyalty. Nevertheless they'll not get a punch plate sale from me I simply punched out the holes in my sheet paper with a small piece of aluminum tubing. The sander itself is a pretty good quality unit. Slightly heavier than my Skil but a bit more aggressive. The grip takes a bit to get used to, but seems normal to me now. My advise, check similar priced sanders and purchase one with a punch plate included.

I recieved this sander with another order as a free gift. This is enough to generally give one pause. However I am pleasantly surprised. Sheet sanders I have used in the past and the old Makita that I have had for years are not the pinnacle of sander technology but this one is fairly smooth running and I found that the shoe plate supplied with my Makita fits this sander for punching holes in the paper. It has much less vibration than the old Makita and seems to work well. Time will tell. This is the first Hitachi product I have owned.

Worked fine for exactly 6 months; then the motor quit. We probably had about 20 hours of use. Will see if Delta fixes it without too much expense on our part (the warranty states that the electric motor may have to be shipped to the mfgr for inspection.)

I got one of these yesterday and immediately took it back. I am a woodworker by hobby and needed to do particular sanding. I found the packaging excellent, but that's where it stops. Yes it sands. The verticle plate in back of the 1" belt was 1/4 inch to the left and cannot be adjusted. It was also bent back 15 degrees and not flush to the belt. The throat is not deep, so, sanding a part of a piece of wood longer that a 10 inches cannot be done. Metal parts were jagged and dangerous, especially the little tables. The miter gauge with the disk sander table is small and wobbled in the miter slot and therefore useless for any specific angle of cut. All in all a very cheesy product. If a straight line or a 90 degree angle is of any interest to a user, leave this product on the shelf.

I purchased this sander about three months ago and have had excellent performance come from it. I am amazed at the amount of accessories that are available for this machine. There are many things available for it-from a felt buffing belt to all the little grinding and sanding attatchments that can be used for the accessory flexible shaft, which I own and am very pleased with. The removable belt platen is a very desirable feature, as it allows the user to sand in tight or odd shaped places. The only complaint I have about it is that when I got it home and opened the package, the "body" of the sander was bent, though I am inclined to believe that the problem arose in shipping and handling or at the home improvement store. I ended up returning it for another one that apparently had been stabbed by a forklift(really assuring), but since I took it out of the box and assembled it (which took less than 10 minutes because of the detailed instructions), I have had optimum performance out of it(and as a tip, just use the included hex-wrench in place of a padlock on the switch if you aren't very concerned about young kids). And also, hook a dust collector up to it, as it creates lots of fine dust. Just the quality you'd expect from Delta! Happy woodworking!

I bought this to replace my 15-year-old Porter-Cable 1/4-sheet palm sander, which lacked a dust bag.

What a letdown. I love my other Milwaukee tools (cordless and corded drills and Sawzall) but this tool is junk. It vibrates so badly that it skips across the surface of the wood. The clamp levers are so weak that one of them bent the first time I used it. And the pad is so flimsy that it was damaged in two places after a half hour of use. The P-C never suffered any such problems.

I've been working wood for over 40 years and have never used such a bummer of a power tool. I think I'll stick with my P-C.

I use palm sanders quite often at work for finishing. Compared to the Dewalt orbital palm sanders, the Milwaukee sander is a pleasure to use. It runs smoothly, has a stronger motor, and is well solidly constructed. I can feel quite a difference in vibration between the DeWalt and this one... after a half hour of using the Dewalt, I end up with tingly hands. This does not occur with the Milwaukee. Milwaukee's paper holding latches hold the paper securely, and never allows movement (again, can't say the same for the Dewalt). Top-notch unit all-around.

I've owned this sander for a few months. Therefore, I can't vouch for its long term reliability. I can, however, easily recommend it to anyone looking for a nice finish sander. It's a sweet little machine, fits the hand nicely, has a much better on/off switch than some. The paper attaching clamps work great. Quite simply, it's a pleasure to use.

bought this unit from a local home improvement center. I took advantage of the 30 day satisfaction guaranty and returned it.
The hook and loop pad came apart after one hour. The sand paper for the profile parts would only last a minute before it wore out. After that it left black rubber marks on my work. It was very uncomfortable to hold. It has a variable speed control on it. I would suggest using Slow! This model does not come with the vacuum hose attachment adapter. I can't believe it is a Porter Cable.
I am going to try a B&D Mouse instead.

Dear Fellow woodworkers:
I just purchased a Porter Cable 9444vs detail sander. I was hesitant to buy it because of all the poor reviews. I decided to borrow one before I bought one of my own. I am restoring an old
cape cod & need to do alot of sanding on doors & windows that I have either stripped or burned to remove paint. This tool is perfect for this job. I can get into tight corners. I can slow it down with the variable speed & it is easy to control and does not gouge the work. I must suggest that the other reviewers are
not giving this tool a fair chance. It works quite well on my old
fireplace mantel and inside corners on the old baseboard. It does
a fine job on old exterior window sills where they meet the jambs. Overall I am very happy with this tool, I would recommend
it to anyone, but you must remember to take your time and let the tool do the work. By the way, you can run it for hours and it
does not heat up. Nice job, Porter Cable

I refinish furniture. I have about 10 sanders that I use to strip and refurbish old pieces of furniture. This sander is my favorite of them all. It gets into places other sanders never dreamed of. The sandpaper rolls that fit the profiles doesn't last long but the heavy duty pre-cut profile sanding sheets do last long. This sander eliminates tons of extra work for the furniture refinisher.

This is a situation where you have yo buy a poorly designed product because there is no alternative. Don't get me wrong the sander itself is fast, great for removing old paint from tight places like shutters. But the seam on the belts almost always breaks before the grit even starts to wear out. I suspect the glue is affected by temperature as the plate gets very hot at higher speeds. Only at the lowest speeds does it seem to last. I wish I could buy a sanding sleeve and cut it down, but the Bosch belts are metric. Bosch should obviously redesign their seam , maybe in a zig-zag rather than plain diagonal, and absolutely change to a glue or tape that is unaffected by heat.

The idea is great. I was impressed with the sander, however the quality of the belts has something to be desired. I usually find belt sanders to use the belt to the bitter end (until the grit just plain wears out). However, the 80 grit belts may develop too much heat (my inpression) for the glue used to join the belt together. With this sander i was never able to use the belt to the end, in fact out of 11 belts used 8 of them failed prematurely all spliting right at the joint and as if the glue on the back patch (looks like tape) just seperated from the belt. No tears and the belt itself was in very good conditon. None of the belts lasted as long as usually could be expected the three others also failed but put up a better fight.

I have to agree with another reviewer that this sander can eat sand paper rather quickly. After a little practice with the tool, however, I found this to be less of a problem. But even with this shortcoming, no other sander I've found gets into the tight spots like this one. I've found it to be a high quality and indespensable tool to have in my truck.

Dewalt made a mistake in the design of this adapter in that the port has a diameter of 1 1/2 inches and therefore cannot be attached to a standard 1 1/4 inch vacuum hose. The package clearly states that this adapter does connect to a 1 1/4 inch hose. I contacted Dewalt but they have not responded. I contacted Amazon and they promptly sent me another one which is just as useless as the first. I tried using a 'universal adapter' and that would not fit it either. If Dewalt ever corrects the design, I will attempt to post the news here. Until then, don't buy this unless you can connect to a 1 1/2 inch (outside diameter) port.

the fein vacuum hose I have fit like a glove, but the rubber clamp that holds the adapter to the belt sander came lose a couple of times during sanding. I would like to see DeWalt design a better clamp to hold the Vacuum adapter on with

Works like it is supposed to and fits perfectly onto the sander and the vacuum cleaner.

I was really disappointed in the performance of this palm sander. I usually do my research before purchasing tools, but I neglected to so this time and thought, "Hey, with DeWalt you can't go wrong." I was wrong. The power isn't there and the dust collection bag, which was a selling point for me originally, collects very little dust - maybe 20%, if that. What's worse, if you're not careful, the bag will just come right off because it's not securely fastened to the sander.

This is my second DW411 sander. After 10 years of regular use the bearings wore out in my first one and I decided to replace it with a new one. I was pleased to see on the new one that the heavy wire clamp handles had been recessed better over the pad which eliminated the problem of the handles hitting the wood in corners. I was also pleased to see that the pad was beefier than the old one. Then I turned it on. I couldn't believe how loud it was. I thought it was new and would quiet down after a little break in. I've used it now for over 4 months and it's still so loud you MUST use ear protection. I'm beginning to think there is something wrong with it it is so loud. It works great, but is so loud I don't want to use it. Time to get something else...

This is the best 1/4 sheet palm sander I have ever used. It is a tough little sander and works great. I use it as a finishing sander and have had great performance with it using 120/150/220 grit paper. The bag collected more dust than I thought it would (make sure you punch holes in the paper though). It comes with a nice case and paper punch.

I ordered the vacuum attachment but have not received it yet. I have 5 sanders in my inventory and this is by far my favorite to use.