Doc Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Just an opinion but I think that Porter Cable pretty much has everyone else beat day to day for belt sanders. I have had Makita's and my main complaints have been part availabilty and then part cost. They also tend to be a bit clumsy to handle I have had very few B and D tools that have held up to day to day use in the last 25 years. I have some really old ones that are tanks but the new stuff is home handy man grade. I have one of the old PC beasts that looks like a locomotive and has a 4x24 on it, but it's a bear to use and isn't even made anymore since Dewalt bought them out. I have a regular 3x21 PC that I have had for over twenty years and use constantly to do stuff that I don't need the 800 pound gorilla to do. It works just as well as it did new. Last summer I got one of the new PC mini- belt sanders and it is one of the neater tools I've gotten in years. It has nearly as much power as a full sized one and will go all kinds of nifty places and really is a one-handed tool. I've abused it for nearly a year now on solid surface counter top work and it's still kicking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 They're all random sizes, most are 1' in width. 1'-6' x 1/4", I used up the only piece that was over 1' wide for bodies. So they're good for making temporary templates to transfer over to MDF. If anything goes wrong with the MDF template, I can dig up one of my plexi-glass templates and make a new one. Doc, thanks for sharing the information on the sanders. Out of all the reviews I have read on power tools, I've never seen any magazines dedicated to belt sanders. I'll check out the smaller PC's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenspoke Posted May 25, 2007 Report Share Posted May 25, 2007 Just an opinion but I think that Porter Cable pretty much has everyone else beat day to day for belt sanders. I have had Makita's and my main complaints have been part availabilty and then part cost. They also tend to be a bit clumsy to handle I have had very few B and D tools that have held up to day to day use in the last 25 years. I have some really old ones that are tanks but the new stuff is home handy man grade. I have one of the old PC beasts that looks like a locomotive and has a 4x24 on it, but it's a bear to use and isn't even made anymore since Dewalt bought them out. I have a regular 3x21 PC that I have had for over twenty years and use constantly to do stuff that I don't need the 800 pound gorilla to do. It works just as well as it did new. Last summer I got one of the new PC mini- belt sanders and it is one of the neater tools I've gotten in years. It has nearly as much power as a full sized one and will go all kinds of nifty places and really is a one-handed tool. I've abused it for nearly a year now on solid surface counter top work and it's still kicking. Thanks Doc for the review, I'll put that little sucker on the list of tools I dont own and have to buy. I really would like a small belt sander for those odd jobs. I also have a Bosch 4 x 24 which I have had no problems with. But I have a vac hose for the Porter Cable to connect to a small shop vac so I use the PC when I reach for a belt sander. One other tidbit of advice when I buy a tool I look for industrial quality, costs more but lasts longer (or forever in my case) and usually does a better job. However if I expect to use the tool occasionally I will look on Amazon for a refurbished unit first. Of course if the price is almost the same as a new one I will buy the new one. (Boring shop moment)I worked in a shop once where the owner would only buy Ryobi hand drills, it drove me crazy. I kept telling him the drills are made for home owners and the gears are plastic not metal and he needs production grade tools. All he could see was the price tag, we replaced a lot of drills, and it cost him more than if he had just bought a few good Dewalt drills in the first place. As far as I know he is still using Ryobi drills. I call it math for the moment. From my HS physics teacher "garbage in garbage out". Seems to apply to a lot more than physics and it's the only thing I remember from his class. Where were we; oh yea belt sanders! Woodenspoke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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