Anyone looking to buy a cordless woodworking sander needs to check out this Bosch deal at Lowe’s.
They have this Bosch 18V brushless motor cordless sander, GEX18V-5N, for $129, and you get a free starter kit with 4Ah battery and charger.
Bosch did a great job with this cordless sander design. It’s pretty low-profile, which helps with control, and has an ergonomic palm grip.
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The dust collection port is off to the right side.
There’s an on/off switch at the front, and variable speed dial on the left side.
Here’s what it looks like with the bonus 4Ah battery and dust collection bag attached. You can connect a vacuum hose in place of the dust bag.
You get what’s basically a full kit, with the tool, charger, and battery, for $129.
Price: $129
There’s a similar deal on Bosch’s 18V cordless finish sander, featuring 1/3 sheet, 1/4 sheet, and detail sanding plates.
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It’s $169 and also comes with a bonus 4Ah battery and charger starter kit.
Price: $169
According to Lowe’s, both deals end on 7/31/24, but they might be subject to change or availability.
Ken
A while back, Lowe’s had the GEX18V for $79, including the battery kit. I bought one because it was an irresistible deal for a Bosch guy, but I have never even opened the box! I always attach a vacuum when I sand, so I would never actually be “cordless” because of the vacuum hose. Also, a corded sander plugs into the vacuum and automatically turns it on and off which is very convenient. So, I have yet to find a use case where I wanted to use my cordless sander. But they seem to be popular, so I must be in the minority.
I would like to get the multi-head detail sander though. It looks like it might be a better option than an OMT with the tiny and expensive sanding heads. Could be very useful for sanding inside corners. I don’t understand the use case for the 1/3 sheet and 1/4 sheet heads though.
John E
What are you sanding with right now? Unless you are using Mirka or Festool I’d open the box right away. It’s very quiet, extremely ergonomic and does an excellent job of dust collection, with just the included bag.
I think it has a 2.5mm stroke so it’s more suited to finish work but with 3M Xtract mesh you’ll be surprised how powerful it is. Vibration (and noise) is also among the lowest of any sander out there at any price. Add a key fob remote power supply for ~$10 and you’re almost as good as a tool-activated, high quality sander for $90. There’s a reason Makita and Milwaukee are playing catch-up by bringing out their own versions of this.
I’ve very little investment in Bosch’s 18V line but I have three of these sanders (I hate swapping discs out constantly) but this sander is the only reason I won’t drop $600 on a Festool or $700 on a Mirka.
Munklepunk
I use mine for random jobs that aren’t in the shop. A lot of times I’ve needed to sand down a fence post for a gate and a cordless sander is the best way. Or I’m way up high and 50′ of course isn’t practical. Or the electricians just didn’t show up. One use I do a lot is really quick jobs, pull out it, sand, put it away, faster than I could get the corded one set up.
As for the vacuum, cordless vacuum. Deaf that sucker all over the place.
However, the sander is one tool that cordless I not prefer..
Farkleberry
I think a 1/4 sheet cordless could be even more useful than a cordless 5″ ROS for a shop well equipped with corded workhorses.
Obviously, outdoor projects in the back 40 and awkward or high up places are fantastic applications for either type.
Typically I prefer the speed/power of corded belt sanders or 6″ ROS running mesh hooked up to dust collection. There is always a need to break edges, and belt sanders are unsuitable and mesh discs get torn up instantly here. A 1/4 sheet sander using cheap sheets is ideal when you don’t need to sand off your fingerprints.
Farkleberry
(by breaking edges hand sanding)
fred
I like a block plane for breaking edges.
When wed hire a new “lead carpenter” or promote someone into that position – as a recognition gift – we’d offer them their choice of any of the block planes in the Lie-Nielsen lineup.
Peter
If I did not buy one at the last sale I would get one.
Really like mine plus it helps that I already have some Bosch stuff.
John E
I don’t know who sets Bosch’s pricing at Lowe’s but it’s all over the map. Tools go on clearance then come back to regular price. Prices drop when they don’t have a promotion then go back to regular price when they offer free batteries and such.
Was in a Lowe’s last summer and happened to run into the Bosch rep and we got talking about Real Madrid for quite a long time. They were running stackable promos that month and he made me leave the store with almost $1000 of Bosch tools and batteries for a little over $200. Most were traded or gifted because I felt like he’d made me steal them. I still have the receipts.
John
I have all four of these Bosch sanders in the 18V and 12V platforms. These are excellent sanders. Very smooth, well balanced. I use these in the shop with vacuum hose. These fly under the radar of mainstream influencers and don’t get enough praise. The new Milwaukee M12 sanders will give these some competition.
John E
The Bosch 12V is my go-to touch up sander. It’s so light and nimble you don’t even notice the battery is there. Very hard to tell the difference in power from the 18V other than runtime. Pity Lowe’s discontinued them.
A different Bosch rep told me SBD outbid them for the shelf space. They still sell 12V on their website, so I’m assuming that’s true.
Stuart
There are occasional deals on the 12V sander, but if it’s $119 for a 12V bonus bundle vs $129 for 18V, the 18V is a better choice for most people.
CoBlue
IME the Bosch 12V ROS is a bit less powerful than the 18V version. This is most noticeable in that it very easily drops the motor speed under load, especially at lower grits. It might do this less with the large format battery packs, but I don’t have one of those.
It is really nice for quick small jobs. Very light and nimble. But I still use the 18v version more often.
John E
I agree with you. The 18V for some reason, is slightly quieter too.
I gave my 12V away to a family member and we were using both to prep butcher block countertops from 120-180 grit ready for Osmo oil, so there wasn’t any real strain on the sanders. Using 3M Xtract mesh discs coupled with a dust extractor made it perform way better than any of my older $79 you-name-it corded ROSs from big box stores with big box paper. ZERO swirl marks too!
JR Ramos
The M12 ones look good although I don’t know about battery power (and battery stress) on their 12V currently. They have the parts list on the site now and it looks like it is a good design overall. Dual row bearing on the bottom working end, mag hall effect sensor for the switch, hopefully decent heat dissipation near the pad but that’s hard to say looking at photos. Actually shows various parts kits available, too, which is a nice change for them but I guess it’ll remain to be seen whether those are ever actually available. I don’t like the way they’ve shielded the motor column from dust…doesn’t look as effective as Bosch or Festool and if they’re aiming for auto body shops that could be really important (speed control dial as well).
The new M18 ROS doesn’t look so promising in several ways but no data/sheets/manual available online yet.
Munklepunk
These Bosch are incredible comfortable. A buddy has one and it makes my Makita a toy. If it was something I used all the time I would replace it, I might still.
Farkleberry
What Makita are you comparing to? LXT 5″ ROS? How does this compare power wise to a typical $50 corded 5″ ROS?
928'er
Tried to buy this twice today. Both times I went through the entire checkout process – once with my CC and once again with PayPal – only to get dumped onto a page that said “your cart is empty.”
Guess it’s a sign that I didn’t really need this… Lowes needs to get there act together.
Tony
Thanks for the heads up. I went out to Lowe’s this morning to pick one up. There were only 2 in stock. Since it was the 4th of July morning, I think I was the only customer in the store. That worked out well for me because I had to go find a Lowe’s employee in order to unlock it from jail (the metal cage). Then I had to explain to them that it comes with a free starter kit. They didn’t know what that was. So they had to radio over to several other employees in the store in order to find out where it’s located. It turns out that the Bosch starter kit was stored in a completely different area of the store than the rest of the Bosch Power Tools and batteries. But they finally found it. I look forward to putting it to work.
JML
Got this at my one of my local Lowe’s. All of the stores locally had 1 sander in stock. If you go in, take your phone with you to show the worker which pair of items to take out of the locked wire cage, and then scan the sander FIRST when checking out.
So what sanding discs do you guys recommend? The Bosch sander has a 5″ 8-hole medium density hook & loop pad.
John E
Get a sample pack of 3M Cubitron II Xtract.
The purple mesh kind with the chevron pattern. There is nothing else out there like them. Get a pad saver backing pad if you are using mesh discs. You can get one included with a 10pack of Diablo mesh discs from HD.
For rough sanding things like fence posts cheaper paper discs will do fine.
Tony
Thanks. I’ve never heard of those 3M disks before. I’m going to try that out.
JR Ramos
There are still some great deals at Cripe Distributing for NOS DeWalt discs…selection is less now but hard to beat. Those are good discs – ceramic grain, which is a nice idea but doesn’t really matter for wood (a bit better than others on steel, though). I’ve been pleased with the DuraGold brand (Amazon) and it’s a good value – pretty decent but not the highest quality abrasive, velcro is good. You can usually find the Bosch and Makita 5-packs for cheap, too (narrow grit selection). Powertec has a newish line of discs that I may try next time I need to buy but I don’t think they’re anything special. I’m not a fan of the mesh type (tried them from Diablo and 3M and for me they just wear out too quickly and/or tear on sharp edges. If you do try those be sure to get the sacrificial pad that goes between the mesh and the sander velcro, so you don’t prematurely wear out the velcro on your pad, but new pads are inexpensive and take two minutes to swap out).
If you don’t mind the quantity it’s hard to beat the various ones that Klingspoor has and it’s actually good per-disc pricing as long as shipping doesn’t kill the value. If you use other sanders that use paper clamps, do yourself a favor and get some of their J-weight cloth backed paper while you’re at it – blows everything else way out of the water and has a very very long usable lifespan.
JR Ramos
By the way, if you’re new to these discs, be aware that the “clog free” discs (usually white/grey) are coated with zinc stearate or similar and while they do help to keep dust from sticking between grains, sometimes it will interfere with wood finishes. I’ve experienced that (albeit 25 years ago) with the Makita discs of that type and have heard about it many times over the years, and recently someone claimed that the 6″ version from Norton did the same. Most discs do not have that additional coating. Also, if you try the Diablo regular discs, they can often leave red smears on light colored wood and hard plastics and it’s not always easy to remove without blemishing the surface…their sanding belts do that as well, which is kind of surprising. I’ve never had any other colored disc leave residue but for whatever reason the Diablo is prone to doing that.
JML
Thanks for the pad and disc advice. I bought two packages of the sacrificial 8-hole hook-and-loop pads from Amazon (they fit perfectly) and two sample packs of the Xtract discs, along with a Bosch white backing pad. I already had a small Bosch AC-powered sander with the same 8-hole pattern (interestingly, it came with the white backing pad, not the red one in the 18V sander) and some Bosch, Gator, and Shopsmith pads. I look forward to trying those Xtract discs – the online reviews are pretty impressive.
JR Ramos
Bosch is kind of wonky with their pads. The red stock pad is marked with an “M” for medium but if you try the “soft” pad (sold as an accessory rather than a part) it is exactly the same density/firmness. You can buy the red pad separately too, just have to search the part number. They have an “extra soft” pad which is actually soft and a little squishy. I’d have to go look at mine again but both accessory pads had white foam while their plastic backers were different colors. Reminds me, I need to pick up another hard pad…
I didn’t like the Gator discs much – not a good value (in the retail packs anyway) and it seemed that the phenolic binding layer was just weak so it cracked and lost abrasive fairly quickly. Good abrasive will have double layers of phenolic – base on the backer and one on top of the abrasive afterwards (like angle grinder sanding discs). A lot of imports omit this second layer for cost savings but in the end the more expensive quality-constructed discs tend to be more cost effective unless you’re destroying them quickly somehow.
Also, to extend life you can use one of the gum rubber sticks to help clean crud off the disc – really helpful with some woods and whenever you might sand old finishes or paint (although moving quickly and limiting heat is still important for the latter). Harbor Freight has good prices on those sticks although they aren’t as good as the ones from woodworking outlets. Can also use them on angle grinder discs (lightly) and vibrating sanders (less effective but still work). They make good erasers for heavy pencil residue also. A fine wire brass toothbrush is good to have around too.
JR Ramos
I do like Gator as a company, though. They have a few unique items but they’re just a good all around company even after they’ve had to shift and adjust in recent years.
Big Richard
For the next few days, get the ROS and free starter kit for $99 at Menards.
https://www.menards.com/main/tools/power-tools/sanders/bosch-reg-18-volt-brushless-cordless-5-random-orbit-sander-tool-only/gex18v-5n/p-5999193515142707-c-10088.htm