It doesn’t suck

For some reason, the one task I hate about home ownership is painting.  I have fixed more bullet-holes over the years where previous owners yanked pictures off the wall and worse.  I think it’s the fear of spilling paint.  I have gotten pretty good at this and I love the way hardware stores do the paint-match thing.  I’ve taken in some tiny paint chips (OK, fragments) that have been matched perfectly.

My wife now hates painting and sanding too so when I told her what I was doing, she asked, “Don’t they make a power-sander with a vacuum cleaner built in?”   To avoid having to hold the vacuum cleaner hose in place while I sanded the spots I was fixing, we bought one.  I was skeptical but after I turned it on and saw the little bag inflate, I tried it in our dining room.  No dust.  The dried spackle is sanded smooth and I’m standing there looking amazed, thrilled to have been wrong.

To my surprise, after a few holes, the tool isn’t even dusty.  Where did the dust go?  The way the tool works is that they give you a plastic punch the same size as the sanding pad.  You punch corresponding holes in the sand paper and the vacuum pulls the dust into the little bag.   To avoid over-filling the bag, I decided to empty the bag before continuing.  Somehow things have now taken a turn.  Now that the bag has been emptied, the combination sander and vacuum is starting to kick out some dust.  At one point, I had even sanded down a spot above the thermostat and I put my hand over that box just to protect it.  I had NO dust on my hand.  Now we’re kicking out some major dust but I don’t know what changed.

I looked on their site for any advice but it seems like all had to do with emptying the bag, which I had done.  When I looked up consumer tips, I got the typical, “Don’t buy that one.  It’s crap.  Buy one of these” (pointing me to another company’s unity).   I may try another tool but I went from skeptical to amazed to disappointed in the span of an hour or so.   They recommended hooking the sander up to your shop-vac.  After the project turned from skeptical victory to “disappointing”, I tried that too.  No luck for me.

If you have any experience with these sanders, please share and make recommendations.   I was ready to tell the world about this cool new drywall repair tool.  Now that I’ve watched several videos on You Tube and seen some other testimonials, I may have to find another option.  I’m a power tool nut and I own dozens of them for all sorts of uses.  I was sure I could make this thing do what it did when I first fired it up.  This is even a brand I like a LOT.