Metabo HPT Belt Sander | 3 x 21 Inch | For Woodworking | Variable Speed | 9.0 Amp Motor | Soft Grip | 5-Year Warranty | SB8V2

If you want a quality, high-performance belt sander, buy the Hitachi. I was contemplating buying another cheap, no-name belt sander and I'm glad I didn't. I've used many cheap belt sanders before and am familiar with the performance. So I was curious to see how good the Hitachi would be and if spending more was worth it.Right out of the box, this machine says quality. It is well-built. A robust design with a metal frame and a comfortable, rubberized grip. It is built to last.Controls are great. It is loud, like most power tools, but not as loud or as harsh of a noise as cheap belt sanders. Dust collection is adequate with a huge dust bag; it captures most of the fine dust and has plenty of capacity for long periods of sanding without stopping. Belt tracking with a good 3M belt is excellent and it operates for the life of the belt without any adjustment. Variable-speed is a nice feature, but I mostly just run it at max speed since my goal with a belt sander is removing material quickly. However, this machine is so powerful and fast that slowing it down can be really useful at times for a final pass before switching to a finish sander.Sanding speed is the biggest operational benefit of this machine over cheap sanders. The belt speed is at least 50% faster than any of the cheap alternatives. Sand with the Hitachi at max speed for 30 minutes, then go to the slowest speed, which is equivalent to the max speed of a cheap sander. You will quickly notice how the Hitachi works about twice as fast as the cheap plastic versions of a a belt sander, saving you time.I see many reviews are of people complaining about belt sanders and how they can gouge the wood, are noisy, creates dust, etc. Those are all true, but those are characteristic of all belt sanders. Belt sanders are meant to be aggressive to remove lots of material quickly. With the correct technique and practice, you can achieve very smooth and flat results, but a belt sander is still not a finish sander. The design of the belt sander leaves scratch marks in the direction of the belt travel, and this can't be avoided, only minimized by using fine-grit belts. To finish-sand wood that you intend to stain and polyurethane, I strongly recommend using a 1/4 sheet palm sander after the belt sander to remove the scratch marks.

This is an amazing machine. I used a far less powerful tool in the past, because I apparently didn't value my time back then. I feel like I respect myself more that I have the Metabo.

I have used this sander for 2 days now to sand a deck and it is a solid performer. The sander built sturdy and is heavier than I expected. I have been running it on the highest speed with 40 grit to remove old paint off a deck. There is enough power but I would prefer if it had a little more. The sander is easy to handle with good grips. The design allows you to sand flush into a corner which is a really nice feature. The dust collection is good and requires little extra cleanup. Changing sanding belts is simple and the belt tracking is working well and easy to adjust. One thing to note is that when I took it out of the box it appeared to have been used. There were some scratches in the paint and other marks indicating that a sanding belt had been run for short while. There were also signs of abrasion in the dust collection tube. So I called Amazon to report my find. They apologized and sent out a new sander the next day. To my surprise, the replacement sander had all the same scratches and wear marks. So, I can only assume that Metabo must do some quality check by running the sander for a short time with a belt. If this is so, I would suggest that they add some documentation to the customer indicating why the sander appears to have been used. I kept the original sander and returned the replacement.

I have a lot of sanders. 6amp bosch orbital, a few 3 amp dewalt orbitals, 4amp milwaukee 1/2 sheet, 3amp bosch 1/2 sheet, an old makita belt sander, and a black and decker belt sander.I was stuck between getting this and a 12amp porter cable 4-inch sander, which is about twice as big as this sander. What finally made me get this one is I found it for $70, the porter cable is triple that price.Having a variable speed on a belt sander is awesome. Belt sanders can remove material very fast, so being able to scale things back is a very handy feature. The vsr function is basically a little wheel on the side of the sander, so it is not a trigger-based vsr, which is good for a tool like this.A 3x21 is a much more maneuverable sander than a 4-incher. And it's much easier to control as well. So doing something like stair treads, where you don't have much space to work in, having a smaller sander is a lot easier to work with. And this sander is still enough to sand the floors of an entire room pretty painlessly.The brushes are serviceable. You can buy replacement brushes online for a couple bucks. I always keep some lying around. Generic brushes work on hitachi tools.All in all this is just a well built tool with plenty of power that is made to last, and easy to service. You can buy all replacement parts for this tool from Hitachi's website (although depending on what breaks you can spend more than the tool is worth).As you can see I didn't even both drawing a comparison to my black and decker belt sander because there is none, I won't be using it much anymore. And my old makita belt sander is just old.. and really old tools just don't have the same power, not to bash makita.Hitachi's headquarters is in Japan, this tool was made in Malaysia.Hope that helps.