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To be fair, the sander arrived in like-new condition and my service from CPO Rigid was great, it's just the product that came up short. This isn't a terrible sander, it just isn't all that great -- not as good as the Porter Cables, and nowhere near as good as the Bosch that I have since purchased, which eats through wood like nobody's business and gives an incredibly smooth surface. Instead of this, buy the Bosch for dramatically better results. I bought this after hearing strong reviews and was pretty disappointed. I'd had two Porter Cable sanders that worked well except that the later model has a flimsy dust-catcher that flopped and spewed dust after several uses, which is why I tried the Rigid.
The last 2 sanders were made in China and I'm not sure where the first one was made but something changed for the worse. I will send this one back under warranty and use it as a back-up after buying a Porter cable or Dewalt as a primary tool. I have owned 3 of these over the past 4 years. It's too bad as I love this tool when it works but can't trust it any more. So much for saving costs by going to China. I am a home remodeling contractor and the first sander lasted 3 plus years and took much abuse. The second lasted 5 months before the bearings failed and the third just stopped working in the middle of a light duty sanding job.
Why don't these things use a standard connection for dust extraction. I got one of these to specifically use with a Ridgid shop vac. I am now very sceptical of anything marketed by Ridgid, very dissapointed, I had much hopes for that brand. jig saw blades are standardized, sanding discs, sawzall blades, hex bits, all have standardized sizing, why can't vacuum hoses be the same.Anyways, I did like the performance , feel, and dust extraction hookup, but none of those things matter if the switch dosent work first. After using it for one project, then sitting in the garage for 3 months, I picked it up to use for some very basic sanding, well, it just stopped working after 2 minutes.I went to home depot to get another one, used that one while hooked up to the vacuum, that one just stopped working after 30 seconds.I returned the second one the same day, and I will call Rigdid and do a warranty claim on the first one.I think the static electricity that is generated by the dust traveling in the hose while connected to the vacuum has something to do with why this unit stopped working.I bought the dewalt unit because at least you can trust dewalt to work for nore that 30 seconds. However the dewalt does not hook up to my ridgid shop vac hose, I had to get an adapter that really dosen't fit too well.
I am very please with my purchase after two hours of use. As a do it yourself boat owner and homeowner, I have the pleasure of spending many hours with many buffers, polishers, and sanders. This Ridgid Orbital sander is one of the best I have every used, it is quiet, efficient, and the dust collector even works better than any sander I have used.
The problem I have is the location of the power switch, very easy to accidently turn it off. Not a bad little sander for the price. I have two.
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