Makita BO5031/1 110V 125mm Random Orbit Sander

This is the best electrical sander I've used by far. I have a 6" Air DA Sander which will make light work of the bigger jobs in the workshop and bought this to use away from the air supply and instead of firing up the compressor every time I need to do a small sanding job. It has now, in fact, taken over from the air sander completely. The dust extraction bag works very well to the point that I have sanded a few internal doors and skirting with minimal dust. (Just try it without the bag to see the difference!) Bottom line - this is professional equipment and does cost a bit more than the the higher end DIY offerings but it works infinitely better and gets the job done in a fraction of the time. I bought in conjunction with the Tacklife discs and the total package has exceeded my expectations!

Wow. This performs much better than I expected. I've had random and oscillating sanders before but not a random orbital. Sands quickly and smoothly. Really pleased I bought this. Tip - Not sure the photos show this - the sanding base has 8 holes to vacuum the distilled so most after-market disks fit (I bought some on Amazon that fit fine). Cord is plenty long enough and seems heavy duty. Vacuum attachment keeps the levels of dust down. Quite noisy so be sure to use ear defenders if using for a long period.

I'd been dithering about whether my compressor had the capacity to power a pneumatic sander and bought this as a bit of a compromise. Been using it every day for about a week, rubbing down paintwork on an old lorry and it is excellent. Easy to handle, with different holding positions, it isn't tiring and the simple dust extraction works very well. I've been using Bosch discs, which are Velcro backed, so easy to change and they last well. It is a bit noisy, possibly due to the type of surfaces I've been working on, so have resorted to ear defenders. Fantastic piece of kit though.

Excellent hand sander with usual Makita quality. Works very well, only thing that could be improved is the filter / dust collector box. This fills up very quickly and doesn't seem very effective. I've not tried it with a vacuum extractor.

Just what I wanted. Does a perfect job

I’ve got a lot of use out of this sander for my woodworking projects, I should have bought one a long time ago! With a big box of cheap discs you can get a lovely finish on wood. It’s comfortable to use for extended periods, even without ear protection. I tend to use a face mask as well on big jobs, but the built in dust collector it probably fine for quick jobs.

Makita is pretty high end for my DIY needs, but I had a lot of sanding to do and so spent the extra. I’m glad I did, it sands well as you would expect, but I was really impressed by the dust collection, it’s not perfect of course, I don’t think you’d ever get perfect, but it’s very good. The amount of dust collected by just the attached dustbag is quite impressive, but if you can attach a vacuum to the dust port then it captures almost everything. I sanded in a bedroom without dust covers on anything with a vacuum attached and after I finished there was almost no dust anywhere to be seen. Also did a great job of the sanding. If using for long periods of time I would recommend using ear defenders as it is quite noisy, especiallly if you have the orbit speed turned up high.

It looked good, felt sturdy and was well made, but after getting it out of the box, I saw that the rubber pad was split and delaminating. I imagine if I'd used it, the pad would have disintegrated. Returned for refund.