i wanted to try glassing a board again so i ended up getting a chicago electric sander. since i wasn’t sure how the whole thing was going to go i wasnt about to cough up for a milwaukee. besides, i figured a CE would be good for at least a couple boards and that likley failures such as the trigger or speed dial would be easy enough to fix. wrong. i was about 90% done on my finish coat before the pinnon gears were skipping, grinding, and making such horrible noise i had to stop. what was i expecting? not a makita $50 bucks but i thought it would at least get through a few boards. for the pinnion gears to fail on the first board they have got to be made from an absolute crap grade of metal and aligned with out the proper lash.
i think if your going to go cheap its better to stick with ryobi stuff which seems to hold up fine under occasional use scenarios. the other stuff i got from harbor freight was also poor quality- scissor set, forstner bits, router bits. not ordering here again.
so far i’ve foiled a set of fins and done some touch-up work with mine, no problems so far (knock on wood). mine was on sale at the HF store for $29, plus $6 for a full replacement warranty. For that price, it really can’t be beat. Plus I’m only making 1 or 2 boards per year.
have you ever been to a HF store? It reminds me of something like a Dollar Store version of ACE Hardware. Cheap crap. Couldn’t believe how packed it was on a Sunday. Kinda embarassing just being in there.
“A fool and his money are soon to part…”
My HFSs have out lived several other sanders.
…and are still going strong todate.
there are some posts that the HF sander / grinder works welll . . . search .
I have a black n wrecker power 4" sander and it got burned out (ozone smell) doing just the laps on the bottom lam . . . it works, but it has lot louder buzz than before. SO instead of 1000 angry hornets, it sounds like a million upset pre Cambrian period 3 ft long hornets.
Go milwaukee.
Mine has gone perfectly for about a year now (8-9 boards). At that price they’re pretty much disposable BUT…you’re situation is not the norm.
Mine has taken some pretty bad abuse in the last year and still works like it did new. Biggest complaint is that the speed is sometimes self varying!
Quote:
My HFSs have out lived several other sanders.
…and are still going strong todate.
Ditto…On my 4th or 5th board with a cheapo HF sander and all is well…Might be luck, who knows…