It seems like there’s no “middle of the road” here. You’re either paying for a product that isn’t too reliable, or you’re paying for the real deal - even for just the occasional project. No one gets away without spending more than $140. And no Harbor Freight success stories, please.
Most major hardware stores (ie Home Depot, Lowes) don’t even carry disc sander/polishers.
Anyone know anything about the Neiko 7" polisher/sander?
Right now it’s looking like the Milwaukee 5540 is my only real option. (?)
I think you’d be doing yourself a favour by buying a decent sander. Milwaukee seems to be the industry standard as far as sanding boards goes. I’ve got a cheap Ryobi sander myself which does the job, eventually. Check Amazon to see if they have any reviews on your Neiko.
You should check out if there’s any Mom and Pop hardware stores down there in Broward Co that would sell reconditioned Milwaukees. I’ve had a reconditioned one going for 8 years now I think. Just replace brushes and trigger once in a while. I’m sure you can find a tool and supply store down there, just make sure it’s a factory reconditioned tool. Save a few bucks for sure.
Today i went all around town checking out every tool store known to man. Very few had disc sanders. Cheapest price I found on the Milwaukee was $219. Order on the internet and with the S&H it’d probably run me the same.
Flipped through the phonebook and saw an ad for Harbor Freight. Took the trip over there and they had the 7" polisher on sale for $29. Added on a year warranty ($7) and it came to $38 total. I feel it’s a bargain - by a year from now, I’ll know if the Milwaukee worth it for me. Until then, I have a $38 polisher that gets a free replacement if it breaks. Can’t beat that with a stick.
It all depends on how often you’re going to use it. Buy a cheap sander and it will leave you shaking like Michael .J. Fox. Sand three, four or more boards a day and she may not last very long, and it will be very uncomfortable to use.
A good machine is balanced and is nice to hold.
But if you’re only doing one board every couple of months a cheap one does the trick, if it spins, it removes material and thats what we’re after.
Try pawn shops. There are good ones and bad ones but you’ll never know what you’ll find unless you go look. That’s the beauty of drug addiction. An addict will sell anything for a fix and usually really cheap. With a pawn shop, you don’t have to deal with the tweekers and the savings get passed right on to you! Seriously though, if you know tools and know what to avoid, you can get some sweet deals. Just can’t be in a rush to buy. That said, I too own a Harbor Freight POS sander / polisher. I’ve done one board with it and and its not dead yet. You can’t beat the deal with a stick but I wouldn’t try it on the sander. Have fun!
I have the same sander/polisher. I opened her up and changed the low quality grease with some high quality lithium grease as per the archives. Seems to work well.
Craigslist has a good selection of used tools too.
what spud said. offer them 1/2 of whatever they are asking. cash. they will counter offer. add 5.00 to the original offer. they will make 3 times what they paid. you will pay 1/2 to 1/3 of a new sander of the same model. unless you are doing heavy production, a good sander will last the next 10 years.
I have both the HF $29 sander/polisher and the Milwaukee 5540 ($200 @ homedepot)
I’ve done 11 boards in the past 9 months I used the HF for 2 of the boards with no problems. I’m getting used to the heft of the Milwaukee and the difference in performance is very noticeable to me. Better results much faster but also much easier to do a lot of damage reeeeal quick. Now, the HF feels like a toy, but I’m sure I could do just fine with it. I’ll keep it as a back up.
It’s a Makita and it’s great but it’s also 2 bills. My HF wobbled crapped out on me so I bought this one. It has plenty of power and is lighter than a lot of the others.
Don’t forget, you can use these to polish your car if that helps you justify the cost.
That’s a nice sander you have there. I like Makita tools. I use a little 4” Makita grinder to take down leash plugs and fin boxes and it works great. I’ve had that little mug for ages, and have used it on some much more heavy duty building materials than plugs and boxes. I have the Milwaukee 5540 and I absolutely love it. It is seriously one of the best investments I have ever made. I’m not sure if it’s my building trade background that I used to earn a living with for years and eventually put myself through school, or too many bad experiences with inferior tools, but I just can’t bring myself to buy cheap tools. I know there are success stories, but I don’t believe the hype. What I do believe is good tools falling from two stories up on a plate, getting run over by an F-250, cutting through 5,000 2x4’s and they keep running strong. I firmly believe the old adage “The most expensive tool you’ll ever buy is the cheap one you’ll eventually have to replace”. I have my Milwaukee, I have my Hitachi, I have my Makita, and my Skil is on the way some day. I have a Skil HD77M circular saw and it has served me well through the years, and I have enjoyed Skil’s quality and durability. I find it on par with Makita’s, Milwaukee’s, and Hitachi’s. I think it was Resinhead(?) that said take a look at a jobsite/ construction site and see what kind of tools they are using. You won’t see any Harbor Freight and for a damn good reason, although you will see plenty of Milwaukee, Makita, Skil, Bosch, Porter Cable, Hitachi, etc. tools being put to good hard use. You can buy a cheap tool and replace it or you can buy a good tool, treat it right, and it will last you a life time. The choice is yours…
In my opinion, you can't go wrong with Milwaukee. I did switch over to Festool though, so I could sand in my shop with all the doors and windows closed, a fire in the fireplace and no ventilation. For the winter. It has a dust unit and works fantastic! It does take me an average of twenty minutes more per board to sand. The pad is only 6"..a bit small feeling at first, now I love it! It's light, fairly quiet, very pretty! It is an ETS 150/5 for rough sanding and an ETS 150/3 for finish sanding. I hardly ever use my Milwaukee any more and I never get any burn throughs! I can sand the rails with one hand with this sander. My Milwaukee has lasted me since the beginning of my career though, I haven't even ever changed the brushes on the thing!
Yah, I like the sander. I’m just trying to give SAsoulstice some feedback. Seems a lot of guys find themselves in his situation. I did. I was just doing repairs here and there. Had been using a drill mount 4" disc for a while. Seriously small low budget. That was a big step up from the old sanding block. I decided I needed a full-sized sander, but I thought hey, I’m so low level that any VS sander will work for what I need. Then all the HF endorsements here by some pretty legit guys, I figured I’d give it a try. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the $200 for something I wouldn’t use much. I bought the “better” sander from HF and some Ferro pads. I thought the Ferro pads were warped. The HF sander crapped out after a few repairs and right in the middle of one I in a hurry to finish. I was pissed. I did some research and settled on the Makita. Also found out the pads weren’t warped. The HF has the wobble.
One more comment on my sander experience. I was looking for a sander with certain features like amps, and rpm range but I was also concerned with weight. Doing repairs I spend alot of time using the edge of the pad lightly passing it over small areas. All that leaned over delicate touching can be a pain in the neck. That’s why I settled on the Makita. It was a couple pounds lighter and still had all the other features. I’m really happy with it.
One area I think the Milwaukee and DeWalt might excel in is building whole boards. I’ve found when I’m sanding large flat areas using almost all of the disc surface, I’m pressing down on the Makita. At those times the extra weight of the other sanders might be an advantage.
So consider that. If you’re going to do a lot of touchy repair work you might want the lighter one. If you’re doing mostly flat work you might want a heavier one. Then again, if your going to use it to polish the car, you might want the lighter one.
i go with festool every time, have a look at the rotex sander of theirs, like leslie said, virtually no dust escapes, its light enough to hold in onbe hand and they have just released a 9" extension pad so it covers more area now. you virtually eliminate white knuckle with these things and they have a sort of double eccentric action which takes out all the ‘dizzying’ marks you get with a standard orbital sander. also because its extraction is topnotch the pads last longer…
I used to think that all you needed was to spin a pad at a certain RPM and the paper would do the rest (given that it was a sander with appropriate torque, weight, etc). I have Festools, a collection of HF sanders, Home Depot Rigid random orbits (for finishing). I recently had an opportunity to use an old Milwaukee (metal housing) for both sanding and polishing on a board, and I have to say that it gives a finish like nothing else. It’s a monster, and will tear off your arm if you snag it on something, but you get used to it. The newer red one is the same design except for lighter, longer motor, speed control, and gives almost the same results. You can get a dustmuzzle vacuum attachment for coarse sanding if you want. If you’re doing more than 5 boards a year, or just one and you’re a perfectionist, get the Milwaukee. Blow it out after each use, wipe off any compound on the outside, and it will probably outlive you.
mook, excellent polishing results with the rotex from festool too! my dealer delivered some new pads last week. they are made by a different company who used to make them for festool before festool set up there own manufacturing. ill check the name tonight for you but they work out much cheaper. if i remember rightly they are made in the us