My wife and I are in the process of painting our house. Since some of the paint wasn't looking so good, we decided to sand down every square inch of the siding before we pressure washed it and primed it. We headed down to HF and got two of these...
item#40070.
They cost $8.88 each. I figured if they lived through the abuse I was gonna lay on them for just 1 job, it'd be a good investment.
Bad news first: these sanders use an odd size of sandpaper. Normal hand held sanders like this use 1/4 sheet of paper. This size of paper is commonly sold everywhere... and I had 2 packages of it ready to go. Dunno if its a metric vs SAE thing or what, but the 1/4 sheets are not quite long enough. Sigh. Basically, these use a 1/3 sheet... with about 1.5" cut off the long side.
Also, the foam stuff that is under the sandpaper tends to get a little tore up during normal use. It didn't seem to effect performance all that much, but I imagine over time it would. They would definitely last longer if you don't run over exposed nails, like I did several times working "blind" on the eves of my roof.
The Good: The motor definitely seems durable. I ran then constantly, in 90+ degree heat for hours.... and hours. When I would move the ladder or use a putty knife to scrape at something, I often just left the sander on. I can't imagine abusing them any more than I did... not over a 4 day period anyway. They got a serious workout, and both keep right on going.
Also, the "dust exhaust" tube thingy, which really doesn't seem to work for that purpose, does make a nifty 2nd handle. I ended up using it a LOT for that. Anyone who has used a sander like this for days on end will appreciate being able to 'team up' on it and spread the work load over both limbs.
Overall: yeah, kinda a throw away item, but they have done their job, were dirt cheap and the motor can tolerate a good amount of abuse.
j
item#40070.
They cost $8.88 each. I figured if they lived through the abuse I was gonna lay on them for just 1 job, it'd be a good investment.
Bad news first: these sanders use an odd size of sandpaper. Normal hand held sanders like this use 1/4 sheet of paper. This size of paper is commonly sold everywhere... and I had 2 packages of it ready to go. Dunno if its a metric vs SAE thing or what, but the 1/4 sheets are not quite long enough. Sigh. Basically, these use a 1/3 sheet... with about 1.5" cut off the long side.
Also, the foam stuff that is under the sandpaper tends to get a little tore up during normal use. It didn't seem to effect performance all that much, but I imagine over time it would. They would definitely last longer if you don't run over exposed nails, like I did several times working "blind" on the eves of my roof.
The Good: The motor definitely seems durable. I ran then constantly, in 90+ degree heat for hours.... and hours. When I would move the ladder or use a putty knife to scrape at something, I often just left the sander on. I can't imagine abusing them any more than I did... not over a 4 day period anyway. They got a serious workout, and both keep right on going.
Also, the "dust exhaust" tube thingy, which really doesn't seem to work for that purpose, does make a nifty 2nd handle. I ended up using it a LOT for that. Anyone who has used a sander like this for days on end will appreciate being able to 'team up' on it and spread the work load over both limbs.
Overall: yeah, kinda a throw away item, but they have done their job, were dirt cheap and the motor can tolerate a good amount of abuse.
j
