Over the years I have come to expect only a quality product from Makita. This sander is no exception. Though not necessary, the rubber on the body and top does give a good grip, especially with fine sawdust on your hands. The 3amp motor has plenty of power and the pad continues to turn even under pressure (unlike the milwaukee). Lastly, the vibration level is very low which makes it nice if you are sanding a large piece or have to use the sander for a long period of time.
I was so pleased with this sander, I bought a second one and use it for fine grit sanding. Makita BO5030K 5-Inch Random Orbit Sander
I've had a cheap Ryobi sander for years now. It works fine, but it's poorly balanced and isn't suitable for creating a nice final smooth finish. I bought this Makita based on owning a plethora of other Makita tools that I've been very happy with. It sands fine, but when you take it off the work-piece, it starts spinning so fast that you can't put it back down without creating a gouge. It spins so fast that it's dangerous; when I first used it I tried to slow it down by tapping it against my leg and it ripped through my pants and cut me. No other sander I've used spins this fast. Some models don't even spin until pressure is applied to the pad. To me, this is a total deal breaker. It's called pad dampening, and is a basic feature of these sanders. Apparently the Makita doesn't have this feature which to me makes it completely unusable. If you're doing something where you never need to pick up the sander, then this is fine for you, but when you're sanding a large quantity of items, and need to pause for more than 2 seconds between pieces, forget about it.
I have used this ROS to sand a door, cabinets, and patio furniture, and it worked great. I have absolutely no complaints about this product. The sander was comfortable to handle and easy to control with plenty of power for my projects. It is still too early to comment on its long term durability.
This sander replaced a 5010 Makita sander that still works it is just old. The new sander has a little more power behind it and is a little heavier. I used it on a set of cabinets I built and it work great!
This sander is much more robust than the Black and Decker orbital sander it replaced. It is very easy to use and I have found that the built in vacuum works very well. The case is useful for transporting and storing.
This sander is not a very good value: weird balance, too high a center of gravity, dust bag outlet clogs, Makita could have done better, will return and buy Milwaukee, I am a professional woodworker and finisher.
This sander worked like a dream for a weeks worth of sanding (painted Door slabs) 5 days of about 4hours sanding each...
This sander melted a gasket just behind the sanding pad causing the tool then to have an uncontrollable off balance behaviour, causing gouging in the sanded work that then had to be re sanded out...
I took this gasket out and the behaviour improved however when ever you lifted the sander off the work and placed it back down again it would go off balance again... which is unacceptable for any kind of sanding work at all.
Were as at first this sander really felt good in my hand and behaved well (really better than my old Dewalts and Riobis... if it's only going to last a week, however, it is worthless to anyone who has customers to serve and can't wait to send tools back to the factory to have them fixed.
A tool that is not ready to go strait out of the box is simply not an option to anyone who has to depend on their tools.
I am disappointed in makita, in that, they have decided to let something like this out the door.
perhaps they have decided that Amazon is a good place to dump crap on the market.
Ah well... nice plastic box...
It should be for the $60 I paid for it - Power Tools - Random-orbit Sanders - Sander - Makita'
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