Axminster Workshop AW150BDS Belt & Disc Sander - 230V

Excellent item but would benefit from an extraction hose to stop the world filling with sawdust

Very good value for the money very strong construction easy to replace belt and disc.,easy to use.

Solid piece piece of kitt. Easy set up.

I've only had this machine for about two weeks and used it a few times but, so far, I'm happy with the purchase. It seems like a robust piece of kit that would be suitable for both amateur DIYers and professional users on a budget. As another reviewer here has said the thing sounds like a bag of spanners in operation and if you're using it for some time noise protection should be considered. However whilst generally everything works as intended it does have two 'surprising' design elements:- 1). The dust extraction port connection design is baffling. It has an outside diameter of 63mm with a very narrow 5mm-ish projecting lip. There is also very little depth behind the port for any hose to lock in reliably internally. Maybe it is made to use some professional workshop standard vacuum hose extractor design but the fact is you're not going to be able to connect it up easily to either a typical UK vacuum cleaner hose or even dedicated DIY ones. These typically use 32mm diameter connectors for which adapters are easily found but not to 63mm. The connector port of the AW150BDS is part of a larger plastic molding attached to the body of the sander so why they settled on this particular diameter: who knows? My solution was to use what I suspect is a 3D printed 63mm - 32mm hose adapter but even that needed the use of a heat gun and jubilee clip to secure it properly. 2). The AW150BDS support table mounting design makes leveling it accurately impossible when used as described. The culprit is part 73, instruction manual exploded view (Page 20). This is the machined steel rod that mounts the table to the body of the machine. Oddly the larger diameter part of the rod is shown in the exploded view as entirely cylindrical. But as it is both the smaller diameter mount end and the opposite face of the larger diameter part of the rod, to which the table mount is attached, are machined flat along the side facing the screws that hold them in place. Why is this a problem? Well in my case the support table was found to be about 1.5° off level, horizontally across the disc sander face. The manual describes (Page 7 - instruction 9) loosening the screw attaching the table mount carriage to the wider diameter part of the rod and rotating that slightly to make it level. But, fairly obviously I would have thought, when the screw is tightened against the 90° machined flat face it forces the table mount back to its original position. If the rod was not machined flat that side there would be no problem so it perplexes me why they did it.

Ideal for a small workshop, plenty of power and I look forward to using it.

Set up is pretty straightforward. I started using the sander, and after a few minutes it stopped working. I wasn't sure if it was the motor or if it had just blown a fuse. So, I changed the fuse. It worked for about a split second, them stopped again. So, it looks like I have a dud. I have other Axminster tools, and they work well, so I think I just got a bad unit here. Have contacted the seller for next steps (apparently their customer service is excellent..... we'll soon see!) Edit: Axminster were excellent in their customer service, arranged for a new sander to be sent out and a collection of the faulty unit. So far I've had no problems with the new sander, and even if I did I have no question that Axminster would sort out the issue.

really pleased with this purchase. good value and built very well. compact enough and very sturdy

Very happy, fast delivery.