Big bang for little buck

Just to start, my oldest daughter Karen was cleaning polish off of her nails at the dining room table when she accidentally tipped over the bottle of nail polish remover. It proceeded to run across the table top and eat through the finish… I decided to strip down the top of the table and refinish it, but I knew that my random orbital sander was on it’s last leg so in a way… this gave me good justification for a new shop tool!

Now for the review…

I was originally looking at the DeWalt 5” at lowes for around $70.00 when I came across this one. I was a little worried about the price, at around $34.00, but really liked the jug handle feature. It really makes it easy to get to the hard to reach areas in the middle of a large panel or table, while using one hand. Another feature that I liked was the sealed on/off switch to keep the dust from ruining it, and not to forget the 12’ cord which is more than enough for reaching those tough areas also.

After using the sander, I have to say that I have grown to love it. It has a disc brake feature that will stop the sander from spinning if you apply too much downward pressure. It was a little awkward getting use to, but after a little time with it, I am happy that it has this feature. It definately seems has enough power to get just about any job done, from small to large. There are three areas for holding the sander: on the neck, top, and the jug handle. All of these areas have rubber pads to ensure comfort.

Included with the sander is a blown plastic case, a few sanding discs of various grits, and a dust collector bag that attaches to the rear. The only downfall of this sander that I have found so far is that it didn’t have anyway to attach it to my shopvac. There is an adapter that can be bought seperately though.

I bought some extra sanding discs of various grits, and the holes didn’t exactly line up with the holes in the sander. Not to say that is a problem with the sander, but could just be the type of discs I bought.

Pros
Feels solidly built while holding
3 gripping points including the jug handle
Plenty of power for just about any job
Sealed on/off switch
12’ cord
Comes with a carrying case
Hook and Loop sandpaper fastening

Cons
Doesn’t come with the ShopVac attachment

BTW…

I completed refinishing the table top and it turned out fantastic. My daughters boyfriend saw it and said.. ‘How did you do that!’

-- Jamie, Kentucky