10 Amp Corded 8.5 in. Variable Speed Handheld Drywall Sander with Sandpaper, Dust Hose, and Collection Bag

I used this for 5 minutes and am so shocked by the results I had to write a review. It was super easy to assemble. Practically assembled already out of the package. I turned it to the minimum speed and then placed it on the ceiling and it took that nasty texture right off my ceiling so fast! I was amazed, shocked and how quickly it all happened! I did a my dining room ceiling by hand, and that was tedious work. Judging from this test area, I'll be able to skip skim coating all together. And lets talk about the dust. It was VERY little dust that was on the floor after I did my small section. I'm going to try it with my shop vac too and see which one is a winner. It was definitely worth the $75 I paid and more! I am currently redoing my kids playroom. I am 38 and 130 pounds....if I can do it, you can too!

I wish I'd had this Wen 8.5 inch Variable-speed Drywall Sander several years ago when I was drywalling two different art studios for my wife. I remember spending hours hand-sanding the first studio walls because I had never done a major drywall project before that. I had done a few wall patches and touch-ups to cover nail holes and such, but never an entire room from scratch. This sander would have made quick work of any drywall sanding project. The Wen 10 Amp 8.5 inch Drywall Sander is quite heavy (6.5 pounds) so it could be tiring to hold for long hours of sanding work. On the other hand, it sands a big area so fast you might not need to hold it for long hours. It includes a shoulder strap to aid in supporting the sander's weight, though that seems more useful as a way to keep the sander handy by letting it hang at your side when not in use. It comes with a dust collection bag and attaced hose that fits over the sander's dust port but the bag is pretty useless without a shop vac to create suction. I had to contact the Wen Customer Support folks to find out how to use the shop vacuum adapters that come with the sander. They don't fit the sander's dust port but they will fit the dust bag end of the dust hose. In order to attach the adapters to the dust hose, you have to pry the dust hose off of the dust bag with a knife or very thin bladed screwdriver. It looks like there are tabs to help compress the pins that keep the two parts together, but they don't actually do anything, This seems like a pretty poor design to me -- many old vacuum cleaners used a spring-loaded pin and matching hole in the accessory to lock the two parts together yet allow them to be easily detached. The suction at the sander is adjustable via a dial on the sander base. The motor of the sander is quite powerful but uses carbon brushes that wear out after prolonged use and have to be replaced. Thoughtfully, the manufacturer includes a spare set of brushes and instructions for how to replace them. However, many manufacturers of drills and other motor-driven tools have switched to brushless motors that don't require periodic repalcement of the brushes. I'm not sure why Wen decided to use this older motor design. The variable speed is a nice feature which allows you to adjust the sanding speed to match the requirements of the material you're sanding. Though designed and marketed as a drywall sander, I see no reason why it could not also be used in sanding wood too under the right conditions. Wen includes a nice assortment of 8.5-inch sanding discs that attach to the sander with velcro-like hook and loop material. The ones that came with my sander were pretty warped because they had gotten folded over in packaging, but I was able to flatten them out by setting a weighted box on top of them for several days. All in all, this is a good product that works as intended. With a few design enhancements, it could be a great product but that would probably increase its cost.

The WEN Variable Speed Handheld Drywall Sander it the tool I was looking for. No more hand sanding or using my 5” rotary disk sander. This is cutting my time on sanding due to 8 1/2” disks. The body does come with a auxiliary handle and shoulder strap to help take away the fatigue when doing long sanding jobs. The motor is variable speed motor that will go from 1500 to 2300 RPM. There is a control excess dust with you can adjust the variable air flow dust extraction dial. The flexible dust vacuum hose is 7 ½ feet in length. It attached to dust bag or a dust collector. It come with the dust bag and two adapters for the dust collector. It comes with two of 150, 180, 240 and 400 grit sanding discs for different sanding requirements. At my HD store they do not carry the sandpaper discs in stock, you will have to order it online. It comes with a pair of replacement carbon brushes to replace with they are worn out. In using it was very easy to use and with the shoulder strap it made my job a lot easier. The dust collector got most of the dust and into the bag. It is a great product from WEN and it comes with a two-year warranty. I think I might to start loving to sand drywall again.

Yes nice tool so far we’ll see how it works in a year thanks

Easy to assemble and use.

Does the job well overall and keeps the dust contained. A little dust does seem to collect around the outside of it, but does not create a cloud.

Is really hard to use, heavy and can’t get in to conners with it

Worked ok.For the price it beats sandpaper on a stick.Still get some dust but better than nothing and is a real time saver

Works better than expected without a shop vac attached. As long as you keep disk flat to surface it will catch 97% of dust. If you use it for say, 5 full minutes, and stop to look through the air in room you will see a very light haze of dust. I really don't think there is a tool on the market that can catch absolutely 100% of the dust though. It takes a moment to reach full rpms but that's normal for these tools. Has decent torque. Don't do like I did!!! I smacked the disk while it was still turning to knock the dust out of the holes and it about broke my thumb! Seriously, almost broke it, still hurts after a week and a half. Yes, I know it was a stupid thing to do. No, I will not do it again! I only wish it had the removable side to get closer to corners. And LED lights like some other models have. Build quality seems pretty good, no complaints so far.. Its hard to connect the shoulder strap and almost impossible to remove it. I took it off as it just gets in my way. My biggest concern is that it did not come with extra brushes for the motor. I did not find any replacement brushes for it on WEN's parts website. And I cannot find any part numbers in the manual for the brushes either to be able to cross reference them and buy them from another supplier. I have not called customer service about the issue, so maybe when the time comes they can help me with finding the correct replacement brushes. All in all it was a good purchase and a very handy tool. 4 stars because of no extra brushes, and the strap is impossible to deal with.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser