Makita DBO180 18 volt brushless 125mm random orbit sander

[Job and Knock]

Here is a quicky review of the Makita DBO180 18 volt cordless 125mm brushless random orbit sander.

Makita DBO180 125mm brushless sander 001_01.jpg (45.57 KiB) Viewed 9270 times

Above: That's what mine looked like for, oh, about an hour after I bought it. (See below for a "real world" photo or two)

OK, so a bit of a mouthful, but the tool itself is relatively compact, If you've ever used Makita's little 1/4 sheet orbital sander (the BO45550) then this is a very similar size which makes it an easy package to handle in one hand - just as well because that's all you'll get on it to get a grip! In the past I've been dubious of the power of batteries to drive tools like this - I always thought that a battery just wouldn't last - but here Makita have produced a brushless motored model which already gives it an extra 40% or so battery life over what you'd get out of one of the older brushed motors, so I thought I'd give it a punt.

What you get in the carton is the sander, a dust adaptor/bag frame, a cloth dust bag and Makita
also give you a single P120 alox sanding disc. My main use for this was always going to be skirting joints and architrave mitre joints so it isn't going to be running for hours on end. At those two tasks I have to say it does well and a 5Ah battery gave me well over a day's sanding (probably a twenty or so skirting joints and a couple of sets of architrave) with some 2 bars remaining on the battery fuel gauge, so in that respect the tool works well enough for my needs.

Makita DBO180 cordless sander 001_01.JPG (47.09 KiB) Viewed 9270 times

Why go cordless? Mainly because there are bits and bats at the end of any job I do where hauling a transformer around (I'm trade, so 110 volt is mandatory) is always going to be a royal PIA. Having a sander which has no flex seems rather strange at first, but not having the flex get in the way all the time is a major plus

How good is the dust extraction? Actually, on the bag it is quite passable. Although not at Festool standard it is well up to the extraction standard of the BO4555. The bag can be removed and the tool hooked up to a vacuum cleaner, but that seems like a odd way to work to my mind.

What sanding disc system is used? A fairly standard hook and loop system with 8 holes which means that abrasives should be readily available off the shelf from a variety of sources. The only negative point I'll raise is that my one quickly developed a tendency to throw P50 (i.e. very coarse) sanding discs on E-weight (very heavy) backing paper. I suspect that it's the aggressive grit combined with a really heavy weight disc which was the issue because with P80 and P120 there were no issues

Makita DBO180 cordless sander 001_02.JPG (20.97 KiB) Viewed 9270 times

What is the orbit and what speed does it do? The orbit is 2.8mm (fine) and the standard speeds are 11000rpm, 9500 rpm and 7000rpm. By default when you press the start button it starts at the highest speed, press the button again and it reduces to 9500 rpm, once more it reduces to 7000rpm, and if you press it again it speeds up to 11000rpm again. Press "0" and it stops fairly quickly - faster than my mains 150mm random orbit sander in fact. The random orbit action seems smooth and well braked and vibration to my hand wasn't excessive and the tool had bags of power on hand - every bit as much as an equivalent size mains-powered tool

What batteries will it use? Any Makita BL-series battery from 2Ah up to 6Ah (couldn't find any reference to 1.3 or 1.5Ah batteries). There is also a 14.4 volt version of this tool available, the DBO140

How heavy is it? Bare of batteries it weighs c.1.7kg - so c.2.5kg with a full-size battery attached which is fairly heavy for a small sander but not unmanageable as the tool has a low centre of gravity

What's the price? I picked mine up for £85 (bare) a few weeks before the Christmas.

How noisy is it? I actually think it is somewhat quieter than the BO4555. In any case I didn't feel the need to wear ear plugs or defenders when using it.

Makita DBO180 cordless sander 001_03.JPG (66.43 KiB) Viewed 9270 times

I think this will turn out to be a reasonable addition to my 18 volt Makita kit. I'll post a long term test in due course. If anyone has additional questions, please post them and I'll do my very best to answer them. Sorry about the tool being mucky, but filler really is awful stuff to sand and attaches itself to everything in site

[davemcdavidson]

That's a nice looking piece of kit! Apart from this and the SDS drill I think I have my Makita cordless kit boxed off!

[Stealthwolf]

I bought this sander just over a year ago. My first sander and I stuck with Makita as my cordless twin set and jigsaw were also Makita. It sounds like the 5Ah batteries are better. I used my 4Ah ones and there was a noticeable drop off in performance when the battery dropped to one bar.

I found the dust extraction bag to be useless so I stuck the dyson on to the end. The wife wasn't pleased but it did a better job.

I bought mine from FFX and they had flexovit sand paper so I bought various grades from 60 up to 180 grit and it's handled them well with no problems.

[Job and Knock]

I found the dust extraction bag to be useless so I stuck the dyson on to the end. The wife wasn't pleased but it did a better job.

There is no doubt that a vacuum will be vastly superior, but what were you sanding? I was initially doing pre-painted MDF skirtings on round columns where the joints needed to be 2-packed and sanded. Whilst the bag wasn't perfect, it was no worse than the bag on my 1/4-sheet palm sander. I find it's good enough for small jobs like sanding joints in skirtings and mitres on architraves (the original reason for buying it). I agree, though, that it isn't anywhere near as clean as using, say, a 150mm corded ROS on a corded class M vacuum - but that isn't and never could be the function of such a small cordless sander, Still considering whether or not IO should buy a cordless vacuum.....

[Stealthwolf]

I've sanded multipurpose filler and I've sanded skirting. Either way, there was more dust in the vicinity than in the black bag. I've taken to wearing a disposable dust mask when sanding and just vacuuming up afterwards. I don't do enough sanding to warrant a shop vac though.

[Stealthwolf]

I have to take what I said about the dust bag back. I sanded a wall prior and between layers of painting. It got 90% of the dust, which surprised me. I spotted a video on youtube where the reviewer mentioned the collar that holds the dust back can be moved. I've not tried it but currently the spot for the dust collection hides the battery indicator. I'm going to see if I can move it around.