Let me just start by saying sanders do not really excite me, until now that is. I needed to find a sander to sand the top of Eric’s bald head because the glare was distracting when we were making videos. So I searched for one of the best electrical sanders I could find. I came upon the MIRKA Ceros 5″ while browsing ACME Tools and figured why not give it a try.
The Mirka Ceros arrived in a nicely packed Systainer. Systainer’s are innovative, but the plastic feels a bit too cheap to me compared with the Bosch L-Boxx, which we will be reviewing soon. That being said, I would take a Systainer over any other cheap plastic box any day. The kit includes: 5″ Ceros Sander, 12ft power cord, Power Supply and wall cord, owners manual, DVD, a wrench and an abrasive sanding assortment pack. The tool was amazingly light at 1.9lbs and had a good quality feel to it. I was still a bit skeptical at how this would hold up to a traditional pneumatic dual action sander.
I watched the DVD and we were off. I plugged the unit in and found some rusted sheet metal I had lying around. The sander operated extremely smooth and was very easy to maneuver, even Eric agreed with me on this. The included soft start kept jerking on start up at a minimum. At this point I am smiling, this thing rocks! Ok so now off to my work bench. I want to sand everything, I start sanding my workbench, this thing is amazing- so smooth and effortless. I even let a female friend try it out that knows nothing about tools, let alone sanders, and her words were “AWESOME”.
The sander has a range of 4000 – 10000 rpms controlled via 2 modes. The first is just on and off with the palm switch. You depress the switch and it runs the rpm you have set. You can also adjust the rpm while the tool is in use in 1000 rpm increments. The second operating mode gives you variable rpms via the palm switch, so if you set the unit for 9000 rpm you can slow it down to 4000 rpm and anywhere in between just by using the palm switch. This sander also excelled at dust extraction, you can use a standard 1 1/4 vacuum hose. The Ceros also has an electric brake that helps slow the tool when cutting power.
We took the tool to our local Marina where we met Pat the fiberglass expert. We wanted him to use the tool and get his opinion. The only boat he was working on was too big to put on a trailer so he had to work on from the dock it in the water. This being an electric tool we took the proper precautions and Pat got started. His initial impressions were good. He loved the weight and ergonomics, he also liked that he could use his own abrasive pads with the tool. Overall, he really was impressed with the Mirka Ceros Sander.
If you are into Radio Control you know about brushless motors and how superior they are. They are like what an LED is to an Incandescent bulb. The Ceros has a 400W brushless motor and is completely digital. This tool represents high tech engineering and the result is splendid. Mirka backs this tool by a 3 year warranty which means they stand behind their product. I highly recommend the Mirka Ceros for someone looking for a high grade professional electrical powered sander.
