The Porter-Cable sander is light, smooth and gives good control but moves the workpiece a bit when sanding.

To measure the sander’s aggressiveness, Engel sanded a poplar board for five minutes and measured how much wood was removed. The Porter-Cable tool removed eight grams of stock over the five minutes and 10 grams with a vacuum attached.

Engel also sanded clear Plexiglass to compare the sanders’ scratch patterns. The Porter-Cable sander had a fair 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 100% of external dust.

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