When we bought our house in 1970 there was a lot of work that needed to be done to "freshen it up." Mechanically it was in great shape but we had to paint, and install rugs, and I built bookcases in the living room and repaired a whole bunch of stuff. I added plumbing for the washer and dryer and did electrical wiring to add capacity and outlets to the house. My friend Jim Wildey said that my world began and ended at Sears, in the tool department! So many of my tools, like sanders and electric drills and electric saws were purchased back then at Sears and they have all been well used. But the world has changed, and I have replaced a number of these old tools, which still work perfectly, with newer replacements that are better or more efficient. Well, this is the newest addition to my collection. It is a "DeWalt Random Orbit Sander, variable speed, 5 inch." It is an amazing machine. It runs at speeds between 8,000 and 12,000 RPM and that can remove a LOT of material in a short time, and yet there is no risk of digging a hole in the floor. It has a little bag on the back of it. So when you look at the sanding disks, they have a circle of holes in them. I wondered why they were there. There is a powerful fan in the sander that sucks up all of the sanding dust through the holes and into the little vacuum bag! Just astounding. And another part that is a gem is that the sanding disks do not use any kind of adhesive. Each new sandpaper disk has a kind of tiny Velcro on the back of it! You just push the sandpaper in contact with the round rubber disk on the sander, and it just plain sticks! So I am having lots of fun using this to sand the floors in the dining room, at present, before varnishing them. Men and boys and all their toys!
I have to borrow this sander when you are finished. When I pulled up the rug in my bedroom several years ago, I was shocked to see splatters of paint all over the hardwood floors. Apparently, the painters didn't care if they made a mess because the floor was getting covered with wall to wall carpet. I tried removing some of the paint but ended it up covering most of the paint with small rugs. This sander sounds ideal! betsey
ReplyDeleteI have a Porter Cable Palm Sander that has served me well for many years.... but the dust collection capability of the attached canister is close to zero. I recently decided to repaint a couple interior doors and used my sander to break the gloss before painting. Dust was everywhere and took more time to clean up than to repaint the doors. Question: On a scale of 1 -10, how would you rate dust collection efficiency on your new Dewalt Random Orbital Sander?
ReplyDeleteKen, I am very interested in your rating of the dust collection capabilities of this machine. My OLD makita is not up to snuff
ReplyDeleteI thought "oh a dust collector." Sure... I was stunned after half an hour of sanding when I suddenly realized that there was NO dust to speak of! I couldn't believe it! Of course there was really very fine dust on the top of the dining room table which is mahogany in color. That is to be expected, but ZERO dust on the floor! It is worth buying this new machine. It is years ahead of the older products! And with speeds of 8,000 and 12,000 it can remove a lot of material, but that also depends on the grade of sandpaper. Start with 120 and the setting of "1" on the sander and see if that does what you want. AND... buy the large assorted collection of sanding disks from amazon, it's only $16. The local big box everything store had smaller packages and were much more expensive.
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