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The Marshalltown vacuum sander works great. It's very easy to use and there is very little dust. I was able to sand my bedroom in half the time if I was using a sponge or sanding without the vacuum attachment.
What has worked best for me is to hold one of the circular sandpaper sheets that go on my power sander and just sand with it by hand holding the vac hose near it. I would pass on this knowing what I know now. The key thing (that I did not realize before destroying one shop vac from the fine dust) is to use the paper filter instead of the canister filter for sucking up drywall dust. Turns out that the most effective way to sand drywall compound and control the dust is to simply hold the end of the shop vac hose near where you are sanding and it gets almost all the dust. really. duh. Anyway, this Marshalltown thing was ten times less effective with the dust than simply holding the vac hose.
Just make sure you buy a fine dust filter or bags for your shop vac. This item works great, I would definitely recommend it for any home drywall projects. As long as your shop vac has the power (the little 2 to 5 gallon ones don't quite have enough ooomph) it'll vacuum 95% of the drywall dust immediately. Additonal note: this is not a powered sander, you still have to do the actual sanding, it simply vacuums up the dust. I saw a previous review from someone who was disappointed because it didn't do the sanding for them.
I just finished a job repairing the drywall after an electrician installed 60+ can lights in an existing house. The ergonomics of the sander itself I liked alot. I also added over ten drywall arches in various openings thoughout the house.I don't do this all the time, so I haven't invested in the Zip Wall or Third Hand systems.Lucky for me is that the owners of the house had just moved in from a one bedroom apartment, so didn't have alot of furnishings, and were willing to tolerate some dust.I bought this sander after reading the reviews and am happy with the purchase. The sander and hose are very durable- I stepped on the hose more than once and no problem. You hold one side and get one result, you hold the other side and get a different type of pressure on the pad, with a different result.But, I ended up using it for only one purpose. I would use it for sanding the existing areas of texture and paint around the areas I was patching or adding an arch.I've not used sanding screens before, and so far I'm not a big fan.I found no way to get the results I wanted on the drywall joints without using conventional drywall sandpaper and especially the sanding sponges.It was nice to, at least, eliminate some of the dust of the rough work.In the work I was doing, drop cloths and plastic barriers were a must.
It's light weight, has good suction, draws the plaster dust into the unit and the environment is relatively dust free, but expect to clean the filter and shop vac frequently as the HEPA filters do clog after sanding 4-5 lengths of sheet rock. I found that the plastic was thin and had to run to a home center in order to retrofit another coupling, which I was able to do for about $2.50.so no big deal.
Overall, the product performed well for the rough sanding and had the variable air flow as suction can be great with a larger shop vac fitted with a HEPA filter. The rougher screens (80 grit) worked best to knock off the high spots and rough spots in the joint compound and very little dust was created with this unit.
I read the reviews about this product because I had a fair amount of sanding to do on a basement sheet rock project. I ended up cracking the plastic coupling piece after reattaching the hose to the shop vac.
I found that a 150 grit soft sanding block worked best to resolve the gouge lines left by the sanding screens (even the 120 grit sanding screen). Overall, the handle design was good and comfortable.
The product does exactly what it's supposed to do and as advertised. It's better to clean the filter than the whole room you are sanding and you can't beat the price.
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