Bodgers
Established Member
I recently bought this sander so I thought I might post my impressions for anyone that is interested.
I toyed with the idea of buying a Festool Rotex 90, but at about £400 I just don't do that amount of sanding to justify it.
This Metabo 80mm doesn't do all that the Rotex does, but it is a small format sander with variable speed control, so I thought I would give it a try for just under £100. Although primarily a sander, it is a bit of a favourite in the car detailing world as it is available with a wide variety of polishing pads etc. and the speed control helps to avoid burning paint.
This is actually quite an old design from Metabo - I think it dates back to the early nineties and is basically unchanged since then.
Out of the box it is reasonably impressive. It has a heavy, but not overly so, robust quality in the hand. The plastics don't look that great in the pictures, but they are actually fine. The design does look a little dated, but hey, its only a sander...
The speed control sits at the back, which makes it more difficult to reach in use.
Interesting aspect of this one is that it is actually made in Germany and not in China. Despite that, it still doesn't mean they always put the stickers on straight...
It has quite a long form factor, but is well balanced in the hand. The dust extraction port seems to work quite well. I am not noticing excessive swirl marks due to the dust not being cleared properly.
At low speeds it is very low vibration. At higher speeds, less so. One thing is a bit strange is the sound this thing makes at low speed, it almost sounds broken in some way, but they all make this noise apparently. I think it is the way the speed regulator operates on the motor. Sort of sounds like the way an F1 car speed regulator works in the pit lane!
At the moment, I'm doing some oak face frames and cabinet door frames, and it is a really nice tool for this kind of use case.
I toyed with the idea of buying a Festool Rotex 90, but at about £400 I just don't do that amount of sanding to justify it.
This Metabo 80mm doesn't do all that the Rotex does, but it is a small format sander with variable speed control, so I thought I would give it a try for just under £100. Although primarily a sander, it is a bit of a favourite in the car detailing world as it is available with a wide variety of polishing pads etc. and the speed control helps to avoid burning paint.
This is actually quite an old design from Metabo - I think it dates back to the early nineties and is basically unchanged since then.
Out of the box it is reasonably impressive. It has a heavy, but not overly so, robust quality in the hand. The plastics don't look that great in the pictures, but they are actually fine. The design does look a little dated, but hey, its only a sander...
The speed control sits at the back, which makes it more difficult to reach in use.
Interesting aspect of this one is that it is actually made in Germany and not in China. Despite that, it still doesn't mean they always put the stickers on straight...
It has quite a long form factor, but is well balanced in the hand. The dust extraction port seems to work quite well. I am not noticing excessive swirl marks due to the dust not being cleared properly.
At low speeds it is very low vibration. At higher speeds, less so. One thing is a bit strange is the sound this thing makes at low speed, it almost sounds broken in some way, but they all make this noise apparently. I think it is the way the speed regulator operates on the motor. Sort of sounds like the way an F1 car speed regulator works in the pit lane!
At the moment, I'm doing some oak face frames and cabinet door frames, and it is a really nice tool for this kind of use case.
