Review: Dewalt DWE6423 Random Orbit Sander

The Dewalt DWE6423 random orbit sander is a good option for a refinishing sander with variable speed settings for home and shop users. It isn’t overly expensive and doesn’t have any jarring drawbacks. Let’s take a closer look at this one.

Sanding Power & Motor

This orbit sander has pretty good sanding power with a 3 amp motor. The variable speed settings range from 8,000 – 12,000 OPM so you can dial in the right speed for the job. The random orbit action is good and the sander does the work for you when you let it.

People find that pressing harder with this sander can sometimes bog it down, so that’s something to consider if you need to tackle really tough material removal. However, people also find that with a random orbit sander you don’t always need to go at the highest speed or press very hard onto the surface to strip a lot of material and get a good, smooth finish, and that is true with this sander as well.

Handheld Design

This sander is designed as a hand-held palm sander and can be used with one hand. It can be gripped on the top or on the vertical shaft and works well both ways. It’s not the most lightweight, but it still only weighs 3.4 lbs. It feels a little beefier than some similar sanders, but that’s not a bad thing. It still maintains a smaller profile, can fit into tighter spots and is easily maneuverable.

Sanding Pad

This sander has a 5 inch hook and loop pad that will hold any 5 inch hook and loop pad with 8 dust collection holes. This size is standard on most orbit sanders and parts are easy to find when the pad wears out. The hook and loop surface on this sanding pad work well, but it can lose effectiveness if the hooks become damaged or if there is a lot of dust buildup.

People who work this sander hard find that they can wear out the hook and loop pad quickly if they aren’t careful, which is an issue with most sanders with the same design. If you’re not wearing all the way through your sanding disc, keep the pad clean and store it in a way where the hooks aren’t flattened it should hold up well.

Some people have issues with the sanding pad wearing out and falling off of the sander. This seems to happen when the sander is put through more stress during sanding jobs but isn’t super common. Something to be aware of though.

Dust Collection

The dust bag on this sander doesn’t work all that great, like with most smaller orbit sanders. It’s best to only try using the dust bag when you have good ventilation or are outdoors due to the dust cloud that will be created. The bag fills up quick and needs to be emptied often on larger jobs. It works much better to hook this up to a dust collector or a vacuum and if you go this route you’ll get much better results, especially when using this indoors.

The dust port on this sander works directly with the DWV010 and DWV012 dust collectors from Dewalt. There is also the DWV9000 Universal Quick Connector which will allow you to connect this sander to 1-1/4 inch vacuum hoses.

Build Quality

This sander is build well for a tool that uses a lot of plastic and rubber in it’s design. This approach helps keep the weight down, which is good for a tool like this. That’s ok though, since there really aren’t any plastic knobs or switches that have issues breaking, and the plastic casing feels solid.

The biggest weak point in build quality seems to be the hook and loop pad. People seem to have issues with these falling off their sander when the mounting holes wear out or the hook and loop surface losing it’s ability to hold discs properly. This isn’t the worst though since this is a replaceable part and heavier duty pads can be found for replacement.

Included Accessories

This sander can be purchased with the tool and dust bag only or also with a kit that includes a carrying bag. Here’s what included with the kit:

• Dust Bag

Other Available Accessories

Dewalt offers some accessories and replacement parts for this sander, which need to be purchased separately. Here’s what’s available.

Dewalt DWE64233 Hook and Loop Pad

Dewalt DWV012 Dust Extractor

Setup & Assembly

This sander is very easy to setup and start using. We recommend to read through the manual so you don’t miss out on any of the small details for use and maintenance. But otherwise this is about as close as you can get to being able to just pull a tool out of the box and start using it right away.

Warranty

Dewalt offers a 3 year warranty on defective parts or workmanship. They also include a 1 year free service contract and a 90 day money back guarantee. This is good enough to help you out if you have quality control issues in that first year of use.