BLACK+DECKER 720 W Angled Belt Electric Sander for Adjoining Surfaces, KA86-GB

Is it a top of the line 600 quid sander? No.Is it a fully featured hard working sander for reasonable use? Yes.I wasn't sure what to expect from a sub 100 quid belt sander. Black and decker are hitting the mark with this one.Plastic where they can get away with it, metal where it needs to be tougher.I sanded two floors and two beams. Didnt take anywhere near as long as I thought.For best results attach it to the hoover. The box wont do much. On the hoover it was nearly dust free.It's a great little sander. Worth the money, belts are cheap and as long as you treat it right should see you right for good while. Two thumbs up from me.

Good machine and good value.Why not 5 stars? The dust collection is terrible.It might work OK with a powerful vacuum cleaner but collected nothing with a normal one.The little gadget that comes with the machine collected absolutely nothing.If you are happy with sawdust everywhere it is fine.It managed a 15 sq m floor without a problem.I bought 60 grit to start with but half way through, decided to experiment with 40 grit, which sped up the process considerably!!!!The design at the front end is great for getting under obstacles.Mine did not come with a medium size dustbag as shown in the photos but a small solid plastic container with an a removable filter.

I did a floor with this, it's strips well with 80 grit, I used it for several hours and had no issues with it but it got fairly hot with extended use, most DIY tools would have failed I think.It's a good strong sander, belts fit easy, tension adjustment for belt tracking and different handle positionsThe dust collector really works bit its small and needs emptying quite quickly, there is a vacuum attachment though.YOU ONLY GET ONE BELT- in advance i got some but they were the wrong size- i couldn't see anywhere what size they were. Just consider there are two sizes of belt sanders this is the larger sander so uses the larger beltsGet the 75 x 533 - Toolstation and Screwfix do them - Amazon do them but buy from a place that pays its taxes

Out of the box, mine was set up and ready to use. The weight was just right for the power it has. Just make sure you have a good grip when you switch it on. If you are a DIY person this is perfect. If you're a trades person buy the more expensive one.

You may need to review some safety features with the handle. The handle is to small with not enough room for you to be able to hold safely while descending the ladder. I had a small accident due to my finger being to close to the trigger. As I descended the ladder I went to change hands just as my left hand go hold of the machine my right index finger hit the trigger button, and ended up with my left thumb getting dragged in between the body and the rear wheel. Needless to say a trip to A&E was required. Lucky I didn’t lose my thumb but it was very close. I now have permanent nerve damage an struggle to pick things up.

Good belt sander, but no longer comes with a dust collection bag. Model has been updated and dust collection is now made via a cyclonic dust unit with a filter.I prefer a dust bag, because it does not get in the way and is flexible. The cyclone unit is rigid and snags a bit on left to right close sanding on floors. That said .. it’s still a good sander.

Sander works great. It's super easy to use and does its job great. I hope it lasts as long as grandads drill, got to be 40+ years old. Dust bag is all but useless unfortunately. Maybe concentrate on a hoover attachment rather than a bag barely works.

So, first of all, I do love this sander and this review isn't meant to put you off buying it, quite the opposite. You should. It's just a couple of things to know first.First off, the sander is fairly basic level. It's not especially powerful, and it doesn't have variable speed. But, it is quite cheap, and that will be fairly attractive if it's not for frequent use. I'm using mine to sand down a bedroom floor, the wood was pretty scabby, and it's easily done in a day.It's worth noting, the price of the sander is tempting, but please factor in the price of the belts. So it came with 1 free belt (presumably by Black and Decker). It's not very good, lasted about 10 minutes. I had bought 10 Bosch 40 grit belts which I thought would do the room (£16.19) and they are better but they didn't last through the whole job (room's about 17' x 13' or 5m x 4m roughly). If you intend to sand a decent sized area you'll use a good few belts. I'd roughly guess it on the basis of 1 belt per square metre, as a guide.Which brings me to the more annoying points. The belts. Often a belt will shear and come out in one, which is fine. But sometimes they split along the length of the belt. When this happens, some of the sandpaper tends to clog behind the rear roller. I can find no earthly way to detach this roller to get in behind to remove the shards, which leaves a very fiddly job. You basically need to tease it out with twisted bits of reasonably thick wire.Second, the torsion lever is very stiff. It's understandable, and fine if you're fairly strong. If you have dexterity issues you will struggle though, which could be an issue.Next, I have quite small hands for a male. I wear leather working gloves/gauntlets (more later) to use this sander. The handle area is really small, even for me. If you have Desperate Dan hands, you have no chance. It's a realy tight squeeze.Gloves. Yes. Now you should wear them anyway, obviously, but, with this sander you will need to. It has a filter system which, typically, isn't terribly good, but that's to be expected. But this filter system has an exhaust which blows out very, very hot air, right onto your pinkie finger. If you used this for a prolonged period without gloves you would get a burn from it.Other things, it is a little on the heavy side, but you don't need to be the Hulk to use it. It's a bit noisy, but quieter than some I've used. The metal plate does get very hot which means you need to give it a half hour to cool down before you change a belt. These are niggly things though.In truth this is a very good machine, and I'm very happy with it. It will get to about a quarter inch of your skirting boards. It gives a very consistent and even sand. It seems more powerful than the stated 720W. It produces a lot less clouds of sawdust than others I've tried.If I was doing a large area I'd maybe think about hiring a floor sander, but if it's just a room, it'll do the job just fine.And it does get 5 stars, despite the niggles, because in truth most budget sanders will have similar issues.***Update***Ignore the above. After sanding 2/3 of a moderate sized room (5mx4m) the sander decided to self destruct. Put simply, it will fire into action fine, but the moment you lay it onto a surface to sand, the rear roller throws itself out of the machine, thus tightening the belt and grining it to a juddering halt. When the sander slows down to stop, this corrects itself and the rear drum slides back in, and the belt rotates. So it works absolutely perfectly unless you want to sand something. The overall rating has been amended accordingly.NB, if this is a known issue, and I'm doing something wrong, there's certainly no hint how to rectify this in the instructions. I have tried every conceivable setting on the belt alignment adjusting knob to no avail. I have also tried belts by 3 different manufacturers incase the belts themself were incompatible but all have the same issue.I now need to buy a new sander to finish the floor, but it won't be a Black and Decker one.