Great Product!
I don't know what product "Jonman x484" is talking about, but it can't be the Orbit Sander. I have been involved in woodworking for over 20 years and own a variety of Bosch tools. My latest purchase was the Orbit Sander to cut down on "sanding" time, and the product lives up to expectations. The two speeds allows you to "rough" sand and "finish" sand without changing tools. It is also very comfortable to use, almost like it was made for my hands. Also, once again, Bosch included a place for the wrench in the design of this tool. I love that feature! No more looking around for the right wrench to change out pads. The only negative is I feel that they should include a vacuum attachment as a bonus. Bosch 1250DEVS 6-1/2-Amp 6-Inch Random Orbit Sander with Vacuum Port
We purchased this sander for finishing timbers. We build timber frame homes and need a heavy duty sander. There are a couple reviews of the sander referring to "plastic" I am not sure what the perception of materials are for the reviewers saying this, but there is no way you have an all metal sander, and if you did it would weigh a ton and fatigue you very quickly.
back to the point, we have run this sander with 200lb guys leaning on it with most of their weight for hours. It gets hot, but has never had a problem. When you have a few thousand square feet of weathered timber to clean up this thing is awesome. It works better than a belt sander for our purposes and when you need it to hog off material you flip the red lever and it becomes a super powered beast.
Bottom line, we use this sander professionally and don't take it easy on it. If your looking for a very well built sander that is heavy duty this is the one for you.
it is a little expensive, but we have never found a better sander. We have the festool one as well and it doesn't seem to have any advantage, other than the cool bright green color to let everyone know you spent a lot of money on your tool.
our only regret is that we didn't buy one sooner.
I make solid surface counter tops. I have used the fein and the festool sander. The festool sander has become a cheap plastic piece of junk. I am sure some of my friends that have spent twice as much will argue with my statement, but, just drop your festool plastic toy on the ground and tell me how happy you are with your purchase lately. I have two Bosch 1250DEVS sanders and plan on buying a third. I have no complaints about this tool and when I did have a minor issue the Bosch representative on the phone solved my problem. I am a happy customer.
Just a quick note, this sander is the best. Maybe 'jonman' got a sander that was made on friday afternoon by an employee who was going on vacation... I have used quite a few other sanders, and there is no comparison. Not only would I recommend this sander, but I would try to talk somebody out of any other sander.
I have to disagree with the glowing reviews of the sander. My previous sander was a Dewalt and I decided to replace it as I was getting a large number of swirl marks from it with the very hard woods that I like to work with (Wenge, Bloodwood, Purpleheart and so on).
I bought this sander on the strengths of the reviews as a replacement, and overall it has not performed as well as the Dewalt. Part of that seems to be design and part that it is just not the right tool for the application.
Strengths:
1. This is a very powerful sander. The motor does not break a sweat on anything.
2. The "fast removal" mode lives up to its name... it's very rapid.
3. Seems to work adequately as a polisher, though attempts to use it like this have always resulted in swirls in the finish. That could be user error though.
Weaknesses:
1. Intense vibration. You need to have some good vibration absorbing gloves on when using this sander, and long term this kind of vibration is no good for your hands. I worked on the assembly line doing spot welding and I know long term what vibration does to your hands. It's terrible.
2. The same strong motor that doesn't flinch at anything can cause the sander to dance over the surface if the sandpaper grabs instead of gliding. The "fast removal" mode can throw the sander out of balance so that it wobbles and jumps all over the place. Small workpieces need to be clamped in place or else the sander can spin them on the bench. Surfaces that are not perfectly flat cause imbalanced friction on the disk and that can cause some of the jumping around. You need two hands on this, and a firm but light touch at all times. This is in contrast with a smaller, lighter sander that will glide.
3. Regular sanding mode doesn't feel like, in spite of the power of the sander, to remove material any quicker than a smaller, less powerful unit. In combination with the two handed use and the constant threat of the sander jumping, it seems to be a net negative as a tool.
4. "Swirl Free Finish" once again does not live up to its promise. Everyone promises this but few deliver. I think this is really highly dependent on the kind of material you're working with.
So overall for myself, I think a lighter less powerful unit would have been the better choice.
Having read an assortment of reviews about an assortment of DA sanders, I went with the Bosch 120DEVS. The project is sanding the hull of an 80' steel sailboat. This machine is unbelievable - it allows me to remove 2 thick layers of badly orange peeled paint with speed and precision on the stock removal setting. It is at least 1/3 faster than the 6" Rigid and Porter Cable machines that I was using. Until you get the hang of where to lean on it to "steer", it can be a handful. Fortunately, it has a very predictable motion and you can lean a little bit at different points as you sand to steer. You can also slow the motor down if it's to aggressive.
It is just about completely dustless on flat surfaces with the vacuum connected. Noting comments that the vacuum attachment doesn't fit (very unBosch!) I opted to use hose gotten at the hardware store. The motor is very smooth and reasonably quiet, you can lean into it without bogging the motor down. I have not used the fine setting extensively yet, but some test pieces lead me to believe that it will do fine work as well as it removes stock. The stock pad is very high quality and the motor is sealed from dust. I expect to get many years of sanding from this machine. It almost makes sanding fun. - Random Orbit Sander - Random-orbit Sanders - Dual Mode Sander - Vacuum Sander'
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