Makita 9032 3/8" x 21" Professional Belt Sander - Heavy Duty Woodworking & Metal Sanding Tool (Blue) - Perfect for DIY Projects, Furniture Refinishing & Metal Surface Preparation

Gets into nooks and crannies for rebuilding tabbing and sanding down glass like no other. Stick some 40 grit belts in and this thing devours fiberglass like nothing else. Like -- you can plunge through it! Amazing tool, you can run it flat out for hours and it doesn't care. Also great for metalwork. Hard to create perfectly flat finishes but there are some different techniques including gliding the tip back and forth left and right. Tracking adjustment works very well. Poor torque at low speed but that is to be expected without closed loop speed control. Many material removal rates possible depending on pressure applied (as little as the weight of the tool), grits, and speeds. Fantastic for deburring metal parts. All around -- pricey but worth it. Made several projects this layup season not only easier but frankly possible. I don't know what other tool I could use to get into some of these little spots. A little slower than absolutely top speed seems to be the sweet spot for most tasks between noise, heating, control, and material removal rate.I purchased this item to clean up welds in hard-to-grind places. It does that very well, and I use it a lot. It doesn't work that well for flattening wide areas; get a sander with a wider belt if you need to do that. It also goes through belts quickly, so buy an extra box or two (they are cheap, and the coarse ones that I use cut very quickly). I would expect the belts to last a lot longer if you are working mostly with wood or similar materials.This is very much a specialist tool. If you need something to fill this role then it is a great choice. Most people don't. I also have a wider version of this tool (1 3/8") and am very happy with that one too.Wish it came with a hard case, but it doesn't. Also, mine tends to throw off the belt if you use it with the handle at 90-degree angle to the belt (handle angle is fully adjustable). That hasn't caused much of a problem for me, but keep that in mind if this unit is too long to fit in your work area. No other gripes or issues so far.This thing is really solid and well built. A high-end commercial grade tool bordering on industrial grade. I was surprised at how powerful it is, yet easy to control precisely. Bought it for a specific task (custom bevels on plexiglas to match the openings on a sailboat), and it made the job of custom fitting the glazing a million times easier. Now I reach for it all the time when something needs a little tweak. Solid value for the money, useful more often than I thought it would be. This is a tool that you don't "need," in that, anything you can do with it you could do some other way, and it's not part of a "basic" kit; but it can save you a lot of time and effort sometimes.Makita, a handle that attaches near the forward roller would be helpful, as would an arm attachment for the 3/8 unit that would allow use of 1-1/8 belts.Fast belt changes, great ergonomics. Awesome customer service.Was considering some of the cheaper options because this one's kind of pricey, but went with the Makita because it runs at the kind of high FPM that's good for steel. Worth every penny. At full speed, it removes material as well as much bigger, heavier tools, but can be used in places that aren't possible to reach with an angle grinder or stationary sander. Attached are pictures of a part that was cut (badly) with an OA torch. Didn't take too long at all to turn the interior surfaces into something presentable. Not sure how I would have done that without this tool, and I suspect that if I bought one of the el-cheapo ones it would now be in the trash and I would have ended up ordering this one anyways.As another reviewer noted, this tool is excellent for grinding door strikes. I remodel hotels and recently did a project where I had to swap all of the guest room doors and locks (almost 100 rooms). The old frames were out of wack and almost all of the strikes needed to be ground to some degree so that the doors would latch properly. This tool made very quick work of it, much better than my old way of doing it. It more than paid for itself. The vendor who supplied to locks did the actual lock install, and they commented that this Makita tool was much better than their Harbor Freight version that they use.I think Makita tools are great and I gravitate to them whenever possible, but after purchasing this one I found out that Milwaukee makes one with an optional finger replacement that would allow a 3/4" wide belt. Makita makes optional fingers that would accept either 1/4" or 1/2" belts. If I had it to do over, I would probably opt for the Milwaukee with the 3/4" belt as that would have fit the door strikes better and made the job even faster. However, with that said, the Makita is great and I look forward to using it often on future projects.I ordered a 3/8 size belt and received a 9mm size. Instructions were all in Chinese or Japanese. Unfortunately I did not open it for over 9 months. It will work but is most certainly not what was ordered. It's what I get for not checking my received product.great for working on my beveled mirrors and to sand cut outs in my glass.Had my doubt about this. Firstly hadn't heard of it, and was cautious about it achieving a genuine result. Having watched a few video's regarding it's abilities, I began to have some trust in it. It was also becoming obvious, this was one of the better one'sSo far I'm very pleased with it's results, and it certainly has no issues, doing what I require.I'm involved in metal and wood. Dealing with square metal tubing, there's an inner ridge which remains, from where it's welded together. Although that ridge. is very small, approx. 1/2mm, x 1/2mm it's still a ridge, and stops other steel from sliding inside. This takes that ridge out with ease. It only goes inside a few inches, but that's all I require.So yes, so far, I'm very impressed with what it's capable of, and it has helped solve, a lot of issues when working.One side note. It doesn't require much pressure, for delicate work, as it's capable of going through material, which is what it's designed for.As I commented in the heading, it's designed for difficult to reach places, with other similar tools.so, after deliberating to buy one or not i thought id take the plunge.. I'm glad i have because I've used it everyday since...its a bit expensive, but the aged old saying of buy cheap buy twice goes along way when buying tools....well recommended for an finer metal workingI've used one of these at work so I'm well aware of it's capability. I was skeptical before I'd used it as I felt that you'd have more control with a hand file. I soon changed my mind though. Give it a go!!I love my new power file hours of saved time free from tiresome filing and sanding brilliant machine love the speed settings and thin size to get in tight spots i love it :)Is perfect!