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This thing is going to save me a lot of labor in sanding and dust control. Virtually dust free, I could not notice any dust at all. So far, I've only used it on two jobs, so my only concern is that it doesn't break on me. I do wallpaper and painting for a living, which often involves wall repairs. I had no trouble learning how to use the sander, the swirl marks others talked about are easy to avoid, but even if you did leave the swirl marks, they would be undetectable through wallpaper or flat paint.
Rent one and try it.you'll either love it or hate it by the end of the day. Frankly, I'm mediocre at mudding/taping, but with this sander I found that I could really cake the mud on and still end up with a nice finish.If I finished drywall full-time, I'd probably get so good at it that this machine might not be worth the hassle, but for a guy like me, it's well worth it. Furthermore, I found that it could do aggressive sanding with little more work than light sanding depending on the sandpaper grit and speed I moved the machine, as well as RPM setting.
Recently I raised a 25'x 30' ceiling from flat to half-cathedral and I did the drywall finish--smooth/no texture. I found it to be a life-saver.Yes, it gets heavy and tiring while sanding a ceiling, but anyone who's ever used a pole sander or hand sander on a ceiling can tell you that it's extremely tiring and messy no matter the tool. As a remodeling contractor, I usually sub out drywall finishing, but sometimes a small job or timing make subbing impractical and I'm stuck with the task.
At least this power sander eliminates most of the messy part with its effective dust collection, and I was able to sand the entire ceiling in under 30 minutes. It's on my wish list. I've always been curious about this sander, but the reviews left me reluctant to buy one for as little as I'd use it.
Then I saw that my local rental center had one and this was my chance to try it.
You have to be very carefull at this point not to exert even the sligthtest amount of excess preassure or else you can hear the motor start to load down. you have to press fairly hard to get the sanding disk to even engage the wall. then with this much preasure it is hard to contol. while this product looks like the cats meow it is more like the cats litter box. Trying to send mine back now after the 30 minute motor waranty ran out. Controlling the product even with the 150 grit porter cable sanding disks is not at all easy. After 30 minutes of use the motor stopped working completely. The dust collection control ring brush is way too long.
If I were a professional I might consider investing in this, as then I might be able to figure out how to use it effectively. The Hyde Dust Dog Pole Sander Kit for Dustless Drywall Sanding and the Marshalltown DuraSoft® Dustless Drywall Vacuum Sander cost far, far less and give more predictable results. This product does exactly what it says it will, and does it extremely well. As a do-it-yourselfer I have been having far better results and just as little dust with hand tools. Yes, it takes a little more elbow grease, but it gives far better results and ends up taking a heck of a lot less time than going back and fixing the scrapes again and again. This is a powerful sander which produces very little dust.However, after two days of experimentation, I could not control the device to the point that I wasn't dinging, gouging, and scraping too much mud (or the paper) off the drywall. This thing cost me way more time than it saved me.
(I have also used it to sand several layers of paint off old doors). Actually it took a few hours to work my way through the grits from 80 to 220, but when I was done, we just vacuumed and sealed the floor. Basically if you have a wide flat surface you need to smooth up the PC 7800 will do a good job. It does do a great job on floors. Be sure to get drywall filter bags for your shop vacuume, they catch almost all of the dust. I had the drywall sander with me; it was Sunday, and the rental places were closed, so I decided to give it a try. I know it isn't a floor sander, but I was helping my brother in law work on an addition at their house, and needed to level out some tongue and groove pine flooring. The drywall sander with it's gimballed floating head let me do it in short order.
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