Makita BO3711/2 240V 1/3 Sheet Finishing Sander

I would give it six stars if I could. A super solidly built tool. No slogger on the on the sanding plate. Relatively quiet and vibration free for an orbital sander. The clamps for the paper are very firm and seem to be much better designed and made than others that I have seen. Variable speed control is very useful for a lighter sand. Best of all it comes with a plastic base plate that looks like a stand but is actually to punch holes in plain sheets so you can have far more choice of papers and far less expense than buying separate prepunched sheets; brilliant. The dust extraction seems quite good. The cable seems to be of good quality. A couple of minor criticisms in that the dust bag could be smaller which would make it easier to use and the cable could be bit longer. My aged Black and Decker, which in fairness had a lot of use, died at 5pm on Saturday and I had this beauty delivered at 4pm on Sunday. What delivery and what a difference it has made to the job!

I sanded down 4 roughly painted walls of a room this week with the Makita. It all went well. The little dust bag was no good for the task so I connected up a flexible hose to it and used a vac on the other end. Pity a suitable connector and tube is difficult to find, Makita don't seem to make one and I ended up making my own from an adapter bought on Amazon and an old vac tube, held on with a Jubilee clip. It worked.. It is quite quiet and vibration is tolerable (I only have my old bosch sander to go by and it's better than that was). The sheet punch is really useful but it does take a little care to detach it from the newly punched sheet - I use a thin scraper to weedle them free. The paper clamping is excellent - really solid. That sheet is going nowhere! You can extend the guarantee to 3 years if you register it online with Makita, I'm in UK.

Not as described. The item details on Amazon state that the country of origin is the United Kingdom. I ordered this item believing it to be British made, but this model is made in China. Makita do make some of their products here in the UK such as the BO6030 orbital sander and the 9911 belt sander but this model is not made in Britain.

Really happy with this. Miles better than the cheaper sanders I've brought in the past. Less noise and vibration, the sandpaper clamps are very good. Feels good and solid in use.

Quieter than I expected and the vibration is much improved versus the cheap model I've been using up until now. Changing sheets is easy and the mechanism for holding the paper is not too fiddly.Already been heavily used. It has a variable speed setting which, whilst useful, needs to be balanced in terms of usage as prolonged use at a low speed could result in overheating. Highly recommend this product.

I've tried many sanders before, and find most of them just vibrate and don't do any actual sanding. This one actually sands really effectively. Well made too. It says it can be attached to a vacuum cleaner... but many weeks of toing and froing with customer services at Makita yielded a pile of bits that didn't fit. When I finally got hold of the right adapters, they wouldn't stay on anyway, so gaffer tape seems to be the only way to go! That loses it half a star. It loses another half star for coming with a ridiculously short flex. 2m just isn't long enough.

Im a professional painter and decorator: I use Sanders every day. No dislikes at all, great machine and very quiet for a sander and a pleasure to use. In fact "once I start using it I dont want to put it down" all in all a great sander from a reputable manufacturer for a great price.

Excellent bit of kit from a company that has a reputable name . It works tirelessly in all conditions, never seems to complain and helps to produce a good finish on wooden surfaces. Little dust bag is a good idea providing you are aware of anything around the space where you are working in that might puncture it Ample electrical flex which is pleasant nowadays.