Sanders Reviews

The sander came a few days after I ordered it! I had never seen it before neither had anyway to compare it to anything else out there! Nobody seems to carry it in stock! I just bought it based on Makita's reputation and specs!

I opened the box and [ooooaaaawwww!]What a beast! It is the biggest orbital sander I have seen for home use! It has the biggest motor and all about this baby screams: Quality!!

I immediately put it to use and I could not believe my eyes! It went through anything I did with it (sanded a couple of doors, a bunch of selves, a new desk I am working on) like nothing. Noise is moderate (I woul;d have prefered it to be quieter) but not excesive. I definetly would recommend ear protection using this baby though especially for long time sanding jobs.

I had spent a lot of time (as I always do before bying a new tool) researching and scrutinizing the competition. The Porter Cable has no dust control and feels old and outdated, the Bosch has a great feel handling it but looks not powerful enough fro big jobs (and I am a Bosch man...), the Milwakee had a weird feel in my hand (more personal taste than a gripe...). I also looked at the other Makita 1/2 sheet sanders but something always drew me back to this machine. Maybe the specs, maybe the picture in the Makita catalog or pure curiosity. I was right though! It is the best orbital/finishing sander money can buy, in a class by itself w/o any other competition!

To be frank it is a heavy unit but once fired up it just glides over your work like on wheels. The paper hold down mechanism is the BEST I have used in any sander of this type bar none! It holds the sand paper firmly and it also streches it while doing so.

Next use I had for the machine was to sand the walls of two of my home's bedrooms! The job was done in a tenth of the time although the machine is kind of heavey for the task! By the way, I never even used the dust collection bag! I do not think it is worth this unit's overall quality. I attached the sander on my shop vac and practically eliminated dust from muy work! One really nice feature is that the bottom of the sanding pad is perforated for dust collection but so are the sides. The sander comes with a small assortment of sand paper but I used it all in no time with all my projects.

The ONLY real dissapointment regarding the unit is that it comes with NO punch plate. For this you either make your own or self out about 18.00 to buy it form Makita! I would have rather spent the extra money and have it included with the unit!

This sander oscilates at a slower speed than the competition. The oscilations are larger and it does the job in less time. Vibration is limited and it does not tire the hand easily. I have a palm sander that makes my hand cramp after a little use! None of this with the big Makita. Anotehr nice ergonomic touch is that the front habndle rotates 90- degrees fro a more comfortable handle with different projects.

I give it 5 stars although it deserves more! It has NO competition out there and it defines a class of its own. I recommended highly for most of your finishing sanding needs.

I recently had an opportunity to do a hands on evaluation of 1/2 sheet sanders. I liked the ruggedness Porter-Cable, the economy of the Milwaukee, and the feel of the Bosch, but this new Matkita is in a class of it's own. I bought it.

At first it seemed a little heavy, but after I got use to it and let it work, it did a fantastic job. This 1/2 sheet sander oscillates much more than the others and does the job in half the time. It leaves the surface dead flat and is very kind to veneer.

It has vacuum pich-up holes in the paper/sander like a random orbital sander. If you hook it up to a vac the dust is minimal ( This may require a little tape around the outlet to fit your hose). The punch plate does not come with the sander. So unless you can find the special pre-punched paper, you need to order the plate from a Makita rep or make one.

this is my second one the first was a trusty dependable workhorse for untold years,if there is a better 7 inch grinder for a professional out there at any price i am unaware of it

i can use this for grinding 7 inch or 9 inch sanding 7 inch wire brush 7 inch diamond blade it has the amps to do the job plenty power i am a brickmason pipefitter welder i use this for many different things it comes in real handy and it has the power to get the job done outside or in

If you are going to be doing any serious wiring around your house buy one of these drills, don't argue with me, don't cavil and whine that's it's too expensive, just buy the drill. Now Drilling between joists, or up into wall cavities, tasks which are a complete pain in the neck with a standard drill are almost effortless with the 3002. I had to run a bundle of wires through 12 floor joists, with this drill it took me about 15 minutes to drill all of the holes I needed and run the wires. Like every other Milwaukee product the drill is very well built and durable and if taken care of will last forever.

I use this drill at work on a daily bases and it has never let me down. The extra long handle is great when your dilling overhead. This model has a higher rpm than the standard right angle dill kit. The higher rpm's make drilling wood a lot easier. I only wish Milwaukee would have put the Quik-Lok cord on this model. No tool is perfect but this one comes close.

I had spent 6 years procrastinating, using my 18v cordless drill to drill for my wiring jobs. I borrowed my plumbers right angle drill (a beat-up Old Milwaukee)and on my way home that night I stopped at my local home improvement store and bought one. Wow what a time saver. The Old Milmaukee FEELS heavy duty. Great torque. Im sure I'll be passing this one down some day. And this is from a Dewalt user...

This is a very good drill well built and durable.

Have one at work, it just takes a beating and keeps on working.

After agonizing over my choices for a finish sander, reading reviews and comparisons, I settled on the Milwaukee 6010-6 and I couldn't be happier. I couldn't believe how smoothly it coasted across the wood. It uses off-the-shelf sandpaper. It felt heavy at first but when in use it seems to just float. One possible negative is that it requires a extra purchase for a dust collection bag, but I've pretty much made up my mind to go for more sophisticated collection system anyhow. I don't have a basis for comparison of how loud it is but that can probably be found in the specifications..

I had a Milwaukee dual-temp heat gun for over 25 yrs....it only broke after I dropped it several times from over 10 feet onto concrete...I bought another brand and was disappointed...the Milwaukee is much more effective...it concentrates the heat better, and heats things up faster. I do my own car repair work....years ago I saw a mechanic heat a stubborn bolt with a torch to "expand" it enough so he could remove it with a wrench. I 've used this Milwaukee heat gun many times to loosen old rusted bolts...ones that won't budge, even when an air-powered wrench is used. Heat up a nut with this gun and it'll come off. The other major use is paint removal....my son used it to heat up paint on old galvanized gutters, wooden door frames, etc. It's great for removing paint...this job usually is very long and tedious, but the Milwaukee makes it go much faster...since the fan in it runs slower and delivers more heat...instead of blowing the heat away. I've also used it to soften rock-hard caulk, etc. My dad had some vinyl tile on the stairs going down to his basement...and he planned to tile over the stairs....I told him I could remove the old tiles with the heat gun...he didn't believe it could be done...well this heat gun made the job easy, and now the new tile is tightly glued to the stairs...there's a lot of little jobs that you think are very difficult or impossible, but this heat gun can make the difference. I bought this kit since it has the tools....

Great product. I looked far and wide for a heat gun that included attachments. Most do not. This Milwaukee has four of them! And each one of them is very useful. I use mine to melt and shape plastics for furniture grade products. This thing is strong enough to form the toughest plastics I have and the lower setting allowed me to gently shape paper thin Styrene. The attachments aid greatly in diverting the heat from areas that you do not want deformed. Added bonus is the carrying case, another feature that most heatguns do not come with. Just helps keep the shop tidy.

Sorry, I can't review this wrench.
It and all my other tools were nabbed
by some unscrupled fool.
The case looked good as well as the tool.
They must have needed it more than me!!

I originally purchased the Milwaukee to remove the crankshaft pulley bolt on my Honda, but couldn't get it off the first time. The garage torqued it way too much the last time I had the timing belt changed so I paid a local garage mech ten dollars to break it free. As it turns out, even the garage air impact wrench had a little trouble and that guy could deliver 600 ft-lb or torque. He retorqued it enough to get home and I was able to do everything else just fine.

Everything else went well and the Milwuakee had no trouble removing lug nuts and other nuts/bolts. How much torque applied depends on how hard you push on the tool. The lowest torque is 100 ft-lb and I guessed when torquing the crankshaft bolt to 130 ft-lb. That and a little Medium grade Loktite should keep things nice and tight until the next time.

There are similar models, but there are several things I like about this impact wrench above the others. The first big thing I liked is the variable speed which is nice when you just want to snug-up a nut or bolt. I also like it over the rocker switch since it is similar to working a drill. The second big thing I liked about the wrench is the switch for switching between forward and reverse. Again, this is a directional switch similar to a drill. The last thing I liked about the kit is that it comes with a case and a few sockets. This may be minor, but being that I'm not using the tool all of the time, it's nice to have it nicely packed away and ready to grab when needed. The sockets only add to the value since these can get expensive. With the current $25 discount for purchases over $199, it only makes sense to spend a little more and get a lot more.

I'll be using it again for mounting a tow hitch and other general automotive work. Well worth buying.

I own a one person cabinet shop where I build custom and reproduction furniture. I recently purchased this machine to help me in several areas. I only have a 6" jointer and needed to have a way to prep wide boards prior to planing - I can use the Performax to flatten one side of wide boards to get rid of twist, bow and warp. I also use it to remove planner marks prior to finish sanding most pieces, and it works excellent for flattening glued up pannels. Some of my initial concerns included the time required to change paper grits - I can tell you it is a piece of cake - I am changing paper in under two minutes - a tool is included for grabbing the spring clips, but I find it faster to just use my fingers. I do not use this machine for the final sanding - I stop at about 150 grit and finish with a ROS or scraper. It is so helpful to have nice flat surfaces for cutting drawer or case dovetails and tight fitting M&T joints.
The unit is build very solid and has an excellent instruction manual - be sure to read the unpacking instructions prior to playing with the machine!! The table travel is pretty smooth and a little light lubrication should help it stay that way. The dust collection is excellent. This machine is pretty big - especially if you add the infeed and outfeed table (helpful for really big stuff) - so I had to get mine on casters to keep it mobile. Overall I am extremely satisfied with this purchase and would highly recommend it. There is no comparision between this machine and either the Delta 18-36 or the Performax 16-32 - this is a professional grade machine!

I bought my Performax 22-44 Pro slightly used from a friend who was getting out of woodworking. Recently, I got my first real experience with it on some cabinet doors another friend brought over. These were made from glued-up pieces of maple. Unfortunately, my friend had not thicknessed the stock before glue-up, so each panel had variations in thickness up to 1/8 inch. We started with 100 grit (should have started with 60 - 80 grit) to even the panels, then went to 150 and 220 grit. Lessons learned:

1. Take small bites. If you lower the drum too much between passes, you can bog down and even stop that 1.5 hp drum motor.

2. Check sanding belt tension often. New belts stretch a lot. If not properly tensioned, the wraps on the drum can shift until they overlap, giving you a bad burn the length of your stock. It takes a little practice in using the tool to operate the paper tension arm on the inboard end of the drum.

3. Check the drum alignment on scrap stock before sanding any piece wider than the drum. If the outboard end is too low, you get gouges and burns on your stock.

4. Keep the sanding belt clean. Use that abrasive cleaning stick every so often to remove build-up. Also brush the feed belt to keep it clean.

5. Dust collection is mandatory. I made one pass without using the dust collector and drum cover. What a mess! In normal operation with the collector, there is virtually no visible dust getting into the air.

6. Thickness your stock with a planer before glue-up. It's a lot easier and faster.

7. Bowed stock wider than the drum is difficult to get flat. Bowed stock narrower than the drum is easy.

Overall rating: Excellent. Once you get it adjusted and get used to installing the sanding stips and using the machine, results are beautiful. Drum alignment is very simple, only takes a few minutes, and should be good for quite a while. Sanding strip installation is easy, you can change grits in about two minutes. Dust control is excellent. Noise level is surprisingly low. Would I buy another? Absolutely!

I was simply unprepared. Before this I had used a variety of orbital sanders to trim down edges and correct my measuring miscalculations. I assumed that this would be a variation on the theme...

I borrowed this from my landloard who had used it for the past half dozen years to annually strip down his 120 ft antique sailboat -- every sq inch of it. After wrestling with it for the first ten minutes, I managed to bring this amazingly powerful belt sander under control. Despite the resisance I was putting against it, the speed was consistant and in minutes I was able to smooth the edges from an homemade dining room table. A hand effort would have taken more than an hour. I used it for a few other projects and was astonished at how good it was, but the real testimony comes from its owner who lent it to me knowing there was no way for me to break it. This tool made me a Porter and Cable enthusiast.

I have used this belt sander for the last 10 years in my stair,railing ,and finish trim company.I prefer this model because it doesn't have a dust bag.I have used other porter cable sanders with the dust bag,but the bag just keeps getting in the way.It is also possible to turn the sander over and use it as a bench sander.The dust bag models won't allow this.GREAT SANDER!

This sander is clearly meant for a left handed operator. The support inside the dust bag is in the way for a right handed person. I had the misfortune of buying this reconditioned from Makita and honestly it looks more Used than reconditioned. Twice before I have bought Reconditioned tools from DeWalt and they both were delivered as practically brand new. Not so with this Makita. I believe that I may return it and go for the Porter Cable. Even though the PC is heavier the ergonomics seem better for me.

Nice and light, and the 4" width is great for leveling 4" wide lumber. Dust collection is better than average. I love the belt tracking adjustment and the variable speed. Slow speed is almost like hand blocking, high speed really takes off lots of material. I've had it about a year now. The other 4 X 24 belt sander that I have used is the Porter Cable 362, but it weighs 20 pounds and it's like sanding with a Buick. Don't even think about using the Porter Cable on a vertical surface. The makita weighs about 8 pounds I think. Only improvement would be to include a case, but none of the belt sanders that I looked at had a case. The 9404 is hard to find in stores, I had to order it from Tool Crib. You won't be dissapointed. If you want a really light and mobile sander, the 5 pound Makita 9911 can't be beat, but it uses 3X18 belts and I like the 4" width. Makita belt sanders seem quieter than most.

This is the best belt sander I have used. It is not too heavy and is easy to control. I use the variable speed control so that I can control just how much it is sanding or taking off, great feature.