Hardin, HPG-331, Pipe Surface Polisher, 120V, 10 lb., HPG331

I bought this for using on stainless steel pipe for a railing on a sailboat. I've used it to polish the stainless steel rudder post and shaft. It works great. Very easy to use. Feels well built. Heavy but strong.I've since used it for rounding the edges of mild steel, Used it a lot and it still works great!

Ordered a returned / used sander. Good price. I was excited until I received a large box today with some sort of metal bracket. Returning. What a waste of time!!

First, the badThe claim of 270 deg wrap while polishing is misleading. Yes, the belt will wrap that far, but the cleaning/sandkng action is much slower at the extents of the wrap. Realistically you only get about 90 degrees of effective sandingSecondly, the on/off switch is very difficult to actuate into the off position. I’ve had several instances where I have the tool in my hand and I cannot turn it off, instead having to hold an unwieldy and RUNNING tool with one hand while trying to unplug it because I cannot turn it off. VERY DANGEROUS!!!!Other customers have had the same problem. One said it loosened over time, others said they returned itI’m going to use it and watch the return window very closelyThe good is that it’s fairly effective. Not to much on diameters less that 3/4” (the belts are quite stiff and don’t wrap well on small diameters, lessening the effective cleaning area quite a bit less than the 90 degrees I mentioned earlierAdditionally, the first one of these I bought arrived with one of the belt guide wheels broken, but they nailed a replacement unit out immediatelyAs a machinist I’ve done quite a bit of polishing of tubes on a lathe using strip sandpaper and the action is similar.A friend of mine has a much more expensive version of this tool but it is 3x as expensive. I’m going to play with this one awhileI’ll update in a couple of weeksUPDATE:The on/off switch is a real problem. Difficult to turn on, and often impossible to turn off with one hand. I often wind up having to unplug it and hit it with something to get it to release. I’m returning my second one and getting something else

Was a little skeptical because of the price of similar machines, but this is a winner.

This would be a great product with two changes...a stronger tension spring and a power switch that can be locked on.The tension spring on this unit is a bit too light. As a result, if you don’t pay close attention, the belt will either slip on the drive wheel or loose it’s track and run off a roller.The other big issue for me was the power switch. The switch in my unit looks exactly like switches on many grinders but you switch would not stay locked on. I had to maintain firm forward thumb pressure on it the whole time or it switches off. I’m not sure if my switch was faulty or this is he way the manufacturer intended, but I can tell you having to hold the switch on during use is both fatiguing and is almost impossible in some positions.I really wanted to like this unit more but couldn’t due to these two flaws.

We have had this tool for over two years and have sanded and polished hundreds of feet of piping and handrail. I see others have negative reviews of this tool, and I don't know why. You can tell it is not a $1500 Fein or Metabo polisher but for us it has worked just as well. the only issue we have is that the belt size of 1-1/2" x 30" are hard to find, but Amazon does carry them

Great price. Works just as well as the Metabo brand.

The belt slips with the least bit of pressure, which causes the belt to burn up.