DEWALT DW423K 5-Inch Heavy Duty Random Orbit Sander with Electronic Variable Speed

I have no opinion as I ordered this as a Christmas gift for my grandson. I have not spoken to him since presenting it to him, so have no idea if he has used it yet. However, he requested this particular sander because it was the same type his Dad had, so I assume it is serving the purpose for which he wanted it.

I'm a contractor and I had to strip four 20" round 20 foot tall fiberglass columns. They told me they couldn't be stripped with a water base stripper, that the three coats of paint had to be sanded off. I sent one of my workers to the hardware store and they came back with the DEWALT DW423K 5-Inch Heavy Duty Random Orbit Sander. I was shocked to find out that this little sander not only held up to five days of non stop work it only went through 20 pads of 50 grit sand pads. Dewalt is a name you can trust and this little sander will be in my truck for the next job.

I bought this sander after doing much research. It worked great on one and a half projects, a front door and part of my kitchen table. Part way through the kitchen table it flat out quit. I took it to a Dewalt S/C and they tell me that the Variable Speed switch is an obsolete part. They didn't even bother to put it together. I think I'll go back to Porter Cable.

I chose this sander based upon a review in Consumer Reports which ranked it #2 (behind a Craftsman sander). The dust bag is not worth using. I could never keep it attached. The vibration from the sander would constantly cause it to fall off. I bought an adapter for my shop vac which mostly fixed the dust extraction issues. Another problem is that the sander bogs down significantly when performing heavy sanding duties. DeWalt's quality seems to be constantly falling. I wish I had bought the Craftsman sander instead.

I've had the sander for just over a year and it has performed very well, until now. The dust collector assembly keeps coming off, every 30 seconds! The design of how the dust colletor port is attached is very weak, in my opinion. My work-around is to wedge a small piece of anti-skid matting in the port. A small sheet metal screw driven through the dust collector assembly and the port may also improve this poor design.