Bang for the buck, or, which orbital sander

There are some good sites for comparing side by side and reviews:
http://www.mytoolstore.com/compare/cpsand1.html
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ToolGuide/ToolguideDirectory.aspx?dir=Sanders

I have had a deWalt 5” ROS for 7 years now and it has not died yet. I do a lot of sanding and go through about 2 pads a year and this past year I had to replace the brake ring. Parts are not expensive and are readily available from Amazon even.

I can sand for an hour and it gets warm, but not uncomfortably so. On mine at least you need torex bits to change the pad, not sure about the new ones.

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

Although I don’t own one, I think the Ridgid ROS for 70 bucks is hard to beat.

-- Carl Rast, Pelion, SC

www.newwoodworker.com is another good site for tool reviews.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

i have a 5” Porter Cable Random Orbital Sander and i’ve owned it for around 6 years. now obviously i don’t use it as often as some guys but it has really been good to me and for 60 bucks it has been a great investment. i use the adhesive style pads and really like them versus the hook & loop style. but i do recommend following the advice of everyone else and read those reviews! stick to the professional woodworking site reviews though, not the average review sites like consumer reviews, etc…

regards,
~isaac

-- Isaac, "It's no coincidence that Jesus was a lumberjock too"

One resource for dilemmas such as this that I have found to be helpful is Wood Magazine. Tool reviews are published regularily. In the October, 2008 issue 12 different 5” sanders were evaluated. The top tool award went to the Porter Cable 390K and the top value went to the Milwaukee 6021-21.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.