I’ve got yet another confession to make. Up to now, I’ve never written a review. Ever. This will be another first, and I’m glad to be able to share it with you. But how do you start a review?
It seems the same way as any other post around here, with music!
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get a bit more comfortable, shall we? Get yourself a drink, and then scroll down.
The unboxing
For this I have made an attempt at a video.
Yes, another first, that’s two in the same post! If you can’t see the video, in the box I found the sander itself, the dust bag and box, the manual, punch pad and some paper.
First impressions
It’s got the cool blue and black colours I dig. Because that’s what is important, right?
It has that smell of new gear. You know that smell, a little bit oil-y, a little bit plastic-y, that just screams “I have never been used before”.
It’s light-weight. Well, that was a deciding factor, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but still.
Did I mention it just looks cool?
Putting it to use
I slapped on some paper and got to work with it. Getting the paper on is actually quite easy. There’s a clamp on the front and one on the back, that you can operate with one hand.
I didn’t get the Velcro pad (or hooks and loops if you want), because that paper is way too expensive for my likings, while regular paper can be ordered on a roll. At the rate I used paper up to now, that won’t be a luxury. This thing eats paper for breakfast. Raw.
So far I’ve used it for one job only: sanding down the walls in our living and dining room, to get rid of the last pieces of wallpaper still stuck to it, and any other burrs on the wall. Oh, and to smoothen the plaster down a bit where necessary. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough for me to tell you that I love this little machine!
I estimate that I sanded somewhere between 50 and 55 m² of wall. It took me some time, because, well, the walls weren’t really in great shape. The old plaster wasn’t exactly straight, and the patching I had done because of all the new electricity I had to run  took its toll as well. But, despite that it took me some hours to get it finished, no tingling fingers! Let me repeat that: no tingling fingers at all! Now, I only have one other sander in the house to compare it with, and that’s a Black + Decker Mouse handsander (the KA1000), which I’ve used recently to strip the paint from a cupboard. One of the things that always made me dread that job was that after 10 minutes of sanding, my fingers were tingling. None of that with the latest acquisition, and boy am I happy for that!
The noise is ok for a power tool. I always, always wear protective ear gear whenever I have to operate a power tool (with the only exception being my cordless drill, but I do wear protection with the impact driver), so this is less of an issue.
Dust. Whenever you say sanding, you say dust. And this machine produces it. A lot. Even though it has a dust collector, dust will fly around and be everywhere. Not that the dust collector doesn’t do its job, I cleaned it up every two to four m², and every time there was dust in it. About this much:
Yes, those are the contents of the dust bag for one small patch of wall I did. It may not seem much, but that’s about one third to half of the bag filled up! Another thing I noticed after a few bags of dust is that the cardboard on the bag isn’t that strong. You need to bend it a little to get it in and out of the box, and by doing so it would start loosening up. To prevent that from happening I put a small piece of tape over the part that scrapes against the box.
Cheap hacks for the win!
I guess this machine just works too good for its dust collecting capabilities to be able to follow. It might be better if you’re able to hook it up to a vacuum cleaner, but for that you need an optional adaptor piece which I didn’t order (but might in the future). Just remember to use the punch pad if you’re using paper cut from a roll, so the suction will still work.
The verdict
I love it. I absolutely love it. Of course I still have to use it more and on different surfaces, but I’m sure it will not disappoint.
Is it perfect? Hmm, close, but no cigar. It generates a lot of dust, so much that it can’t actually suck it all up itself. Maybe those are just wrong expectations, after all a lot of people are raving about its dust collecting capabilities. Maybe I just need more experience to be able to judge correctly. And if you want to release the back clamp you need to tilt the box just a smudge, unless you pry the clamp open with your fingers.
But those are just details. All in all I think its near perfect. I would highly recommend getting it if you’re looking for this kind of sander. You won’t regret it. I know I don’t and won’t. Ever.
If by now I’ve got you as raving as I am, and you just need to have it, here are some links for you. These are affiliate links, so I’ll make a little bit of money if you buy through them, but at no extra cost to you. If you don’t feel comfortable with that, don’t do it! That’s perfectly fine too! Just go straight to the store of your liking. Anyway, you can get it at Bol.com (where I got mine), Amazon.co.uk or its non-variable speed brother at Amazon.com.