The 6 best belt sanders to buy in 2019

With its combination of compact design, raw strength and price, the Makita 9911 gives the most belt sander for the money, and is therefore designated our best in test. It takes only 10 seconds to remove 1 mm across a 45 mm wide pine plank, which is clearly extremely good. Nor was the task of sanding an oak table a tough task for this belt sander. And it removes the material evenly across the entire surface. The quality of the end result means that although the sander is definitely capable of preliminary tasks, because it tends to leave scratches it's not suitable for fine carpentry where you’ll need a better surface finish. The dust collection system can't cope with epoxy sanding. However, it can sand a resinous pine without immediately getting blocked. We'd have liked to see a nozzle to connect the belt sander to a vacuum cleaner. Instead we had to cobble together our own solution made from tape. Another disadvantage is the relatively short cable, which popped out of the socket a couple of times during use.

Working for longer periods with the Makita 9911 is no problem. Ergonomically, it’s a high quality design which is easy and pleasant to operate. The two handles are close to each other, giving you good control over the machine. However, one major disadvantage is that the filter builds up static electricity. On more than one occasion as we used it we got a couple of hefty shocks. And naturally enough this has a negative impact on the otherwise high levels of user-friendliness. In terms of construction quality, the only thing that’s not quite so good is the tension spring. The noise level is normal, but the noise profile is annoying, because it whines. Otherwise, this is a belt sander that feels extremely well made and which is easy to get to grips with. We would have liked it to have had a frame and the possibility of fixing it in place and using it as a stationary machine. However, the Makita 9911 does have a number of other intelligent functions. For example, you can adjust the speed yourself and lock it in auto position. It also has lateral adjustment, but unfortunately you have to set this using a screwdriver instead of a simpler rotating control, which we would have preferred. However, this is a minor aspect considering how easy it is to operate the belt sander in general. The neat size also makes it easy to store when it's not in use. Despite a couple of shortcomings, this is a good belt sander for rougher sanding regardless of whether you're an amateur or a professional.

The Bosch PBS75A is an efficient belt sander that removes a lot of wood in a short time. Sanding 1 mm of pine from a 45 mm board takes only 7.5 seconds, which is extremely good. The result is also smooth and better than we'd expected. We detect minor scratches on the surface when we sand using 120 grit paper and dark stain, but nothing that a 150 grit paper wouldn't remedy. Unfortunately the PBS75A has no speed control. This makes it difficult to control sanding at detailed level. Given how powerful this belt sander is, the lack of a speed control is a relatively big negative point. But the build quality is high. The machine makes no strange noises and feels well balanced and substantial. The long, narrow design means that you can get in very close to walls and corners.

The Bosch PBS75A has been well designed in many ways. The belt sander is compact and you can adjust it so you can get right up to the wall when you're sanding. It's also easy to change the belt with a spring that you release and tighten. The start button is in the right place, as is the auto mode switch. We'd have liked a much longer power cable and a 90-degree angle on the dust exhaust. As it stands the power cable often falls out when you're working on larger pieces of material and you have to drag around a large exhaust hose sideways. We would have preferred a design where the hose ended up behind the machine. The actual dust extraction is fine when it comes to resinous pine and similar materials. But it's not effective at sucking up allergenic materials such as epoxy. And unfortunately this means the environment actually ends up hazardous, even if you're wearing a mask. One major advantage with the PBS75A is that it comes with accessories for bench mounting. It's also easy to operate and you can work with it for a long time without physical discomfort due to vibrations. Overall, the Bosch PBS75A is good value for money and despite its weaknesses you get a lot of belt sander for your money. This machine is perfect if you need a belt sander but you won't be using it every day or professionally.

The Bosch GBS 75 AE gives a uniform sanding result, which is the belt sander's greatest strength. It's not particularly efficient in terms of time, but the end result is better than expected. For example, when we sanded an uneven oak plank, you could both see and feel that the finish was more than acceptable. Not sufficiently good for cabinet making, but it does a very good rough job. Two additional advantages are that you can lock it in auto mode and that you can set the speed yourself. The GBS 75 AE is supplied without a frame, which sets high demands on the belt sander's build quality and design to achieve a good result. Because it has no overhanging motor and is relatively elongated, it's well balanced. It stays flat on the surface, and doesn't wobble during use. This is one of the reasons why the end result is so even. It also has a long cable, which means that you don't have to drag vacuum cleaners and extension cables around with you. Other than the front handle, which could have been better ergonomically, the design of the GBS 75 AE gets a thumbs up.

The dust collection is also acceptable, but here there are things worthy of comment. Because not only must the filter sack be installed using a screw, it can't cope with tougher tasks. For example, the epoxy test had to be abandoned completely because the sander produced so much dust that the work environment became downright unhealthy. But the dust collection system worked well with all of the other tasks we gave it. You can also connect a vacuum cleaner to the nozzle. The biggest disadvantage of this belt sander is that it's ineffective. For example, it takes 20 seconds to sand 1 millimetre of pine across a 45 millimetre width, which is a relatively long time for a belt sander in this class. There's also no way of attaching the GBS 75 AE to a workbench and use it as a stationary unit. But in general, it's a solid and stable belt sander with good build quality. It delivers a clearly acceptable result, even if it takes a bit longer than you'd like.

The Ryobi EBS800 is a machine that produces a number of positive surprises. The belt sander is strong and removes 1 mm of pine across a 45 mm plank in barely 10 seconds, which is extremely good. Nor will hardwoods pose this machine any problems. At the same time, it produces a flat, attractive sanding result. Not good enough for fine carpentry, but sufficiently good for the majority of the rougher tasks that a belt sander is intended for. Its major shortcoming is dust collection. When sanding a resinous pine, the sandpaper quickly gets clogged, which is an indicator that the dust collection system isn’t up to the task. And this was confirmed when we tried to sand an epoxy surface. The gigantic filter seemed to do absolutely nothing, and nor was it possible to connect it to a vacuum cleaner. In addition, during even simple tasks producing a lot of dust, we discovered that the filter wasn't very effective, as a great deal of dust was produced even when we sanded an elm table. The filter seems to be unnecessarily large. We would have preferred a vacuum cleaner nozzle to be included.

The EBS800 is made of plastic, but despite this the build quality feels reasonable. It doesn't make any surprising noises or knocking in use. The front handle can also be adjusted up and down. A really positive surprise is the small drive wheel right at the front which means you can get really close to obstacles, corners and walls when you're sanding. The only disadvantage we noted was that the belt sander is slightly unbalanced, which can make it less easy to operate – particularly as it doesn't include a frame. Two other functions we'd like to see is the opportunity to attach the Ryobi EBS800 to the bench so it could be used as a stationary machine, together with a speed adjustment setting. But given its price class, this is a very powerful and competent belt sander. If the dust collection system had been better, making the working environment a little healthier, the score would have been significantly higher.

The RYOBI R18BS is a neat and handy sized battery-powered belt sander. Because the dust extraction is so poor, however, the fact that it's not mains powered doesn't help much, at least not indoors. You'll still need to attach a vacuum cleaner to get a healthy working environment as it produces a huge amount of dust even under straightforward conditions. The actual dust bag lets small particles through. This also negates a good part of the advantage of a battery-powered machine, because you're limited by the vacuum hose. The battery is also slightly in the way when you come to connect the hose. Once you've installed it, however, it works well. An aspect that's considerably better designed is how you adjust the sandpaper. There's a large, clear adjustment button, which is much more functional than many other manufacturers' solutions where you sometimes even have to use a screwdriver. It's also very easy to replace the sandpaper, as you simply have to release a spring.

The RYOBI R18BS produces good sanding results. It doesn't work in a particularly efficient way - we can see with the naked eye that it rotates more slowly than other models - but it's easy to get a nice smooth result. The finish is really good. Unfortunately it wobbles quite a lot when you do coarser sanding. But this disappears when you move down to finer sandpaper. The machine gets plus points for being able to get so close to the edges as it sands, and also for the long guarantee. We measured the battery life with a 5 Ah battery as around 13 minutes, which is pretty short given that it doesn't work very quickly. But the quick charger included with the machine charges the battery fully in just under an hour, which is undeniably fast. The RYOBI R18BS is most suited to someone who already has Ryobi series tools and thus has a set of Ryobi batteries. Then you can get a good sanding result without worrying about how long it takes.

The Black & Decker KA 88 is good at effectively sanding with a uniform and attractive result. It can cope with sanding both soft pine and hard oak, and even epoxy. 1 millimetre of pine was sanded in 10 seconds, which is a good result. But this belt sander also suffers from a number of shortcomings which mean that user-friendliness and performance are also impaired. For example, dust collection is less good than expected. The sandpaper quickly got clogged when sanding resinous pine, and a great deal of dust was produced when sanding epoxy. However, on the plus side it does include a nozzle for the vacuum cleaner. The build quality is the KA 88's biggest downside. The machine feels clumsy and unbalanced during use, and also has physical problems over time. For example, the button that tightens the spring to hold the sandpaper in place felt loose after only two changes. The machine also creaks and grinds alarmingly during use. But it has a rubber handle, so it does at least feel stable in your hand.

A major advantage of this belt sander is that you can tilt the handle. It also has one intelligent function – a small drive wheel at the front – which means that you can get very close to obstacles etc. as you're sanding. But we would have liked to see functions like speed adjustment and the opportunity to attach the belt sander to the workbench for stationary use. Nor is there any frame, which makes it still more important for the actual belt sander to be well balanced so that you don't sand away too much material, particularly when you're using such an effective machine as the KA 88. Including a frame would have outweighed a number of the shortcomings we found in the design. As it now stands the machine is hard to manoeuvre during use. It bounces around a lot and is hard to control. We think this is a shame, given how efficient the KA 88 is in terms of time. The machine has a number of very good features, but also several that need to be improved before we can recommend this belt sander.