The DeWalt sander was easy to control but did move the workpiece in testing. Engel also measured the sander for aggressiveness by sanding a poplar board for five minutes and measuring how much wood was removed. Then he measured the amount of dust the sander collected. The DeWalt sander removed eight grams of stock over the five minutes and 12 grams with a vacuum attached.

In addition, Engel sanded clear Plexiglass to compare the sanders’ scratch patterns. The DeWalt sander had a good scratch pattern. Engel found that the machines with the most uniform scratch pattern tended to be the most aggressive. With vacuum attached, the sander collects 75% of external dust, the same amount of dust collected without the vacuum attached.

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