Before talking about any power tools let us demonstrate our amazing psychic powers so powerful we can even demonstrate them over the internet. Picture a cordless random orbit sander… now let me show this amazing talent… you are having feelings of past tool disappointments and imagining ridiculous tools with laser beams or other gimmicks. Amazing, right! That being said, let us be the first to say we were very surprised by the performance, value and runtime of the Makita Cordless Random Orbit Sander LXOB01 ($279, Amazon) kit. The Bare Tool Sander LXOB01Z is only $109 if you already have plenty of the Makita 18VLXT batteries.
Our first concern was runtime. It is very common to get into a sanding session and go continuously for 60+ minutes with only a few breaks. The kit does come with 2x LXT 18V batteries and the Makita charger is one of the fastest chargers on the market, when you hear how loud the charger’s internal cooling fan is, you will probably not be surprised. We fully charged both batteries and ran them completely down on the high speed setting with 24 & 26 minutes runtimes respectively. While the charger says 30 minutes, it actually performed better than advertised. The first battery was done charging before the second battery had even died. Basically, we feel pretty confident we are not going to run out of juice, which is key.
The power-to-weight was the second concern. If you are going to slap a battery on what should be a light tool, it can make a difference. Also, are we going to see a much weaker tool in cordless? We were pleasantly surprised by the power out, and it actual features a pretty aggressive ¼” orbital pattern (3/32” common for 5” orbital) with nice power, very comparable to what you will see with similar $69-$109 range on corded units. Weight really was not noticeable for us, however we were mostly using it vertical.
The feel of this unit is slightly bulkier than other corded units but it was not a problem for us. Some of the newer sanders have been making improvements in anti-vibration, a common trend in all power tools. For this unit, vibration was pretty well in line with orbitals (at least in our assessment) but if you are looking for a super low vibration unit you might consider something else.
Basically, what we are saying is the unit comparable to its corded counterparts. What you got to ask yourself at that point is “Do I want to go cordless?” Most sanding we’ve ever done has been in the shop near a power outlet with pretty easy access to the work piece. If we look at the price tag of the whole kit with 2 batteries at $279 as a standalone it doesn’t seem worthwhile.
If, on the other hand, you already have some Makita 18V tools you will find the batteries typically run about $100 each, so this kit actually becomes a pretty nice value if you could use another 2 batteries. Overall, we found cutting the cord to be a nice improvement for this 5” orbital. We definitely are not giving up our 6” corded orbital for the real nasty stuff, but we will definitely grab this 5” cordless next time we need to do some basic sanding. We think it is a very nice addition to the cordless lineup and not just a gimmick.