Random Orbit Sanders

[Ellen Benkin]

I am sure this has been asked but I did a search and could not find the answer.

My older Bosch ROS died and I want to replace it. I don't do a lot of sanding and I don't want to spend a lot of money but I also don't want a piece of junk. I've looked up the Bosch ROS20vsk ($69) and the Rigid R2600 ($69). I would probably be happy with either one. Any comments on these two or any other relatively inexpensive ROSes? Clearly I'm not in the Festool market but I would like something to which I can attach my shop vac for dust control.

Thanks for the help.

[Prashun Patel]

I own the Bosch. It's a very nice sander. Lighter than a lot of them out there, and the dust collection is pretty good.

[Jim Rimmer]

I had to replace my ROS recently and didn't have time to do a lot of searching and comparison. Got the DeWalt at Home Depot (sorry, don't remember the model) and it works fine - vibration is not bad and dust collection works OK. I think it was in the the $50 or so range.

[Van Huskey]

The Bosch ROS20 is a nice 5" ROS for the money. It would be my choice of the budget sanders.

[Kent Chasson]

It used to be that you couldn't go wrong with Porter Cable. I have an old one that has been dropped repeatedly and seen many hundreds of hours of use over 20 years without a problem. Can't vouch for the newer ones now that PC has been bought out but I'd still be tempted to start there.

[Don Jarvie]

I have a Craftsman Professional 5 inch - 8 holes. Professional is the red colored model. It has a port for dust collections and works fine, 57 bucks. They have cheaper ones that may be up your alley since you dont use it much.

[Kevin Groenke]

In our college shop, ROS's take a beating, we've had more opportunities to use different sanders than I would like. In the past 5 years, we've used and basically destroyed 5" palm style ROS's by DeWalt, Ryobi, Metabo (aka Rigid) and Bosch (some off brands too). Last year I got 3 Milwaukee 6021-21's. At this point the Milwaukees have outlasted any other model we tried. No VS switch burn-out, no "brake disc" that needs frequent replacement, no broken vacuum adapters or other issues that have ended it for the other sanders. The vacuum adapters and replacement pads are less expensive than Dewalt and Bosch. There is a hose adapter under the dust bag, we just got a couple extra of those fittings and trimmed off the bag adapter which works great.

At ~$60, the price is right too.


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[Andrew Joiner]

I second the Milwaukee 6021-21.

I've had one over a year and it has maybe 20 hours on it. Nice sander. It beat the festool 125 in a magazine test I saw. I'm buying buy a few more to have one for each grit.

Bosch’s new ROS65VC sounds great,but it's a lot more money.

[Jon Endres]

I have a Ridgid R2600. Bought it used ($50) about four years ago. I think it's great. Bought it after reading many favorable reviews, and got lucky in a used tool store.

Except for the color, the Milwaukee looks to be a clone of the Ridgid. Only thing that appears different is the location and style of the on-off switch.

[Ellen Benkin]

Thanks for all the great responses. I was going to try the Milwaukee until I realized it is 8 hole and I have a drawer full of 5 hole disks. I'm not sure about the Ridgid, which got pretty good reviews, but I will check it out at HD.

[Jon Endres]

Ridgid is also 8-hole. I just looked at Makita, Bosch, Porter Cable, Ridgid online and all the common models appear to take 8-hole paper.

If I were needing to replace the Ridgid, I'd try to find another, or maybe get the Porter-Cable 390K.

[Kent A Bathurst]

It used to be that you couldn't go wrong with Porter Cable. I have an old one that has been dropped repeatedly and seen many hundreds of hours of use over 20 years without a problem. Can't vouch for the newer ones now that PC has been bought out but I'd still be tempted to start there.

Kent....

No kidding. My PC 333 is 12 years old or so. Doggone thing simply won't die. Well - it did, actually, but it was only a couple bucks for a new orbit belt/o-ring thing. I've thought about getting a new ROS, but can't figger out why I need it.

Kent

[Steve Costa]

I have 2 Bosch ROS sanders, both of which are 6 hole. One is a 5" the other is a 6". I have had these for several years and they run great every time I use them. I have also had excellent support from the Bosch customer service team. It has been awhile since I contacted them but they all spoke some great American ENGLISH!!!

Steve

[George Octon]

Thanks for all the great responses. I was going to try the Milwaukee until I realized it is 8 hole and I have a drawer full of 5 hole disks. I'm not sure about the Ridgid, which got pretty good reviews, but I will check it out at HD.

I think they're all 8 hole now, Porter Cable I think was the last hold out and I think they're 8 hole now. I had the 5 hole PC for a while and it was a huge pain having both 5 hole and 8 hole discs. A pain and a waste. All 8 hole now.

[George Octon]

I bumped into it somewhere recently (Depot?) It's like that Porter Cable low profile. I didn't see the price. Seemed kind of heavy. The PC seems really good.