Long past are the days where we had our beloved mirka orbital sander. It had a long run but unfortunately it was far too taxing on our air compressor.
Recently when i sat down to look at my project list for culture crawl this year i estimated i was facing about 50 hours worth of sanding over the weeks leading up to the crawl using a 5 inch orbital sander. That number seemed really insane when i thought about it.
So i caved. I ended up purchasing this 6 inch orbital sander and my experience getting it and using it. I got this for my own personal use but figured i’d leave a detailed review in case the members at VHS might want to crowd source for a generally better sanding experience.
The pruchasing decision:
The sticker price was really the driving factor here - ngl. Comparable Mirka or Festool brands run north of 900 dollars. At just over 200 dollars after tax how can i say no? Especially when you consider the upgrade from a 5 inch to a 6 inch orbital sander. What does that extra inch really give you might be asking yourself? Well that one extra inch equates to 44% more surface area to your orbital sander. Which really means you sand much faster with it. So one of my biggest criteria on a new orbital sander was simply that. 6 inches or bust.
Some other perks that caught my eye was it was brushless and the sanding reportedly stopped fairly quickly after you power it off. This particular model also gave the option to switch to a 5 inch pad - which i might never swap on because ain’t nobody’s got time to sand for 50 hours but i bought it anyways. It came with sand paper but i still had oodles of 6 inch cubitron sheets in my bin from those mirka days (I still miss you and had a hard time letting go).
the delivery:
What a shitshow. They tried to deliver it to my condo but couldn’t get into the building. They said it’d show up at a pickup point but never did. I eneded up ordering a new unit and recieved it before they finally agreed to refund me for the lost package. But it finally made it into my posession.. about 6 hours into the 50 hours i needed to spend sanding.
the imediate complaints:
As soon as i opened the box my biggest complaint was very apparent. The dust collection hose on the orbital sander was about 2.5 feet long. Imagine working on a desk or a table and you want to plug in your orbital sander to a shopvac or dust collector. You’d be left with just a few inches of room to actually sand.
This would not do. Instead i ordered a knock off festool dust collection hose from temu for an extra 50 dollars that was 3.5 meters long. this hose would allow me to use the dust ports under the main workbench on the oposite side of the tablesaw comfortably and a huge improvement over the short hose it came with. This knock off hose fits very nicely into the dust ports attached to the workbench and doesn’t detatch like some of our 3d printed hoses.
the pre-sanding:
To help expedite this process i had to spend a few hours getting our thickness sander up and running again. This meant spending an hour closely monitoring the conveyor belt motor for temperature and dialing in it’s bed levelling and installing new sand paper on it. Those details are noted in a different talk thread listed here:https://talk.vanhack.ca/t/drum-thickness-sander-repairs/17044/6
This presanding step with the drum sander probably took a total of 5 hours off my 50 hour goal. Sure i could have gone to co-lab or asked friends with big wide belt drum sanders to shave that down to 1 but at some point we needed to get that thickness sander back into operation so thats what i used. VHS minutes completed.
Sand paper:
Generally speaking for 5 inch orbital sanders i’ve historically gotten diablo sand paper from home despot. Mostly because it’s easy to pick up at a whim and does the trick.
What is greatly preferred however is the 3m cubitron sand paper.
- Diablo Sand paper
- 3m cubitron sand paper.
There is a wide gap between the quality of the two sand papers here. The diablo (red one) have very few holes for dust to be sucked out by your dust collection. So it is far dustier to use than the cubitron stuff. The cubitron sand paper is also mesh so it has much better airflow through the paper into the dust port. The grain on the cubitron stuff is also far superior in that as it breaks off from the sand paper you’re still left with jagged pieces that continue to sand. The result is something that is better at dust collection while lasting longer. They do make 5 inch cubitron sand paper but finding it in stores can be a hit or a miss and if you’re buying sand paper you really should splurge and get the better stuff.
the results:
After the presanding - sanding with the vevor model went pretty darn quick. Maybe it’s because its got less than 10 hours on the machine. Maybe it’s the size but it was pretty darn quick. Typically i spend about 15 minutes sanding per side wiith a 5 inch orbital sander. Using this vevor model brought that down to under 4 minutes. The biggest impacts on the time i’m quite certain being a combination of using a larger sanding pad and using better sand paper. For shaving down that 40 hours of sanding remaining 15ish is a huge improvement.
Disadvantages?
Yeah well this system isn’t perfect. The short hose would absolutely have been a disaster in terms of productivity - but one unexpected disadvantage showed up as i was working on the corners of my cutting board.
Sanding pads (not the paper) typically are attached to the orbital sander through a bolt. In this case a pan head bolt. When sanding on a flat surface it’s not at all noticable but if you sanded a corner of your project and bump up against this bolt it may protrude ever so slightly. In the photo below you can see wear specifically around the bolt. That could leave a very unwelcomed scratch on your project if you aren’t careful.
Well waranty voided - i’ve since replaced this bolt with a flat one that shouldn’t stick out as much. Simple enough fix.
I also picked up some foam interface pad that adds a bit more padding and should help prevent that central bolt from rubbing unintentionally against my project. These added an extra 20 dollars. This also should help address another big disadvantage to this tool: The vibrations. Does it put out good vibes? no. Absolutely not. In comparison to our old mirka this vevor model is much closer to our existing stable of sub $100 5 inch orbital sanders. The pneumatic mirka we had in the shop relied on air pressure to move the sanding pad around this greatly reduced the vibrations felt in the hand.
Summary
For a 6 inch orbital sander it’s not bad at all. Paired with some relatively low cost upgrades this can be a very useful tool for the shop.
Pros:
- Cost. Huge factor to have a viable 6 inch orbital sander that can put in much of the work so you don’t have to. Even factorring in an improved hose and interface pads it’s still a good low cost option.
- 6 inch size is inherently better to sand large flat surfaces - and technically speaking you still have the option to slap on a 5 inch pad if you need abit more detail work.
- Speed of sanding is likely on par with the pneumatic mirka.
- Dust collection is very good especially with the cubitron sand paper.
Cons:
- short hose means you have a very limited travel distance. Vevor should either include a longer hose or not include a hose at all.
- Vibrations are pretty significant but understandable at it’s price point. a fuzzy feeling in your hands can be felt after 20 minutes of sanding. Extended sanding sessions will definately be felt.
- Poor hardware selection for how the sanding pad attaches to the orbital sander but easily replaced.
/rant