I know, I know, everyone’s sick of hearing the sander debates…BUT- I bought one, and I’d like it to last as long as possible. I know Herb said to take the gears out and regrease them with better stuff, but what? Can anyone point me to a name brand nad weight or type of grease that would be a good match for one of these awesome HF sanders 
? Thanks.
This may be a bit ironic…but I really like Milwaukee tool/bearing grease & gear oil 
I routinely repack gear grease in sanders, jigsaws, recip saws, heavy drills…and change the oil in worm drive saws, and I always use the Milwaukee stuff. If that’s what I’ve used, if I ever have to take it apart again, the grease (which starts red) and the oil (which starts kind of clear red/brown) are still their original colors. Other grease & oil seem to turn black or brown and collect shiny (metal) dust over time. Just about any time I buy a tool I end up repacking it. If its cheap, I repack early, as soon as I notice a change or increase in the noise. If its a good tool, I wait for lots of noise or increased vibration, or if I heat it up a lot. The cheap tools don’t even really seem to have grease, more like Cosmoline.
Edit: I don’t have any HF tools except a venturi pump with no moving parts. In my experience, the cheaper made tools are Ryobi, Skil (in the last 10 years), and some Makita sanders. The better tools, and I haven’t changed my mind even after taking them apart, are Porter-Cable, Milwaukee, Bosch, and the heavier-duty Makita stuff. DeWalts are the best cordless.
Thanks Benny…
I’ve never done this before. Is it fairly easy? Do I just get to the gearbox, take them out, wipe the old stuff off and then work some new grease into them and reassemble? This might be a good “how to” to put in the Resources page actually…
Any more refined hydrocarbon will clean a cruder hydrocarbon. So kerosene will clean grease, gas will clean diesel, etc. So it depends on what you’re going for. I used to use kerosene to clean the grease but now I use some orange-based stuff from a bike shop. Then compressed air to make sure its all gone, then the red Milw grease.
These things come apart surprisingly easily and are mechanically beautiful & uncomplicated inside. You’ll be happy you did it.