Hesitant Handyman Reviews - Ryobi 18v ONE+ Cordless Brushless Belt Sander (P450)
Powerful like a corded, portable form factor
Pros:
- Powerful brushless motor
- Easy to handle size
Cons:
- Battery power drains quickly on smaller batteries
I purchased the Ryobi P450 Brushless Belt Sander with a gift card I’d been sitting on for a while. The sander was on my list for a while, but I’d had trouble biting the bullet. After all, I did have a corded Craftsman belt sander that I inherited from my grandfather that I could use, so getting a second belt sander seemed silly. But eventually, my wanting a shiny new sander overrode my sense of not needing one, and I decided to pull the trigger.
The old beast
To truly understand how big of a shift this was for me, I need to introduce you to my grandfather’s sander, which I’ve affectionately named Skarsgård. I have no idea what it translates to, just that it’s a surname associated with a fairly well known family of Swedish actors. (If you’ve not seen the patriarch in Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor, or Mama Mia, where have you been living the last two decades?) You have to admit, though, it sounds intimidating, which is the only word I could find that adequately describes how I felt about this sander the first time it launched a piece across the shop. It made a dent in my garage door. From that point forward, Skarsgård didn’t come out unless I’d properly secured the item I was sanding. Skarsgård is a 4″ plug in Craftsman, realistically it’s large enough that I could possibly strap a saddle on and ride it, save for the limited range afforded by the cord. Based on the fact that it feels like it weighs half a metric ton and it pulls away from me to a point where I barely feel in control of it, I’m going to assume it’s one part cast iron and one part Tasmanian Devil. It’s a wrecking machine that you could probably turn loose on a home invader if your dog’s asleep.
The New Kid
Meet the new kid. Honestly, I’ve not named him yet. I’ve been thinking over what to name him, but haven’t been able to come up with an adequate name at this point. Let’s call it Steve. It’s a pretty name. (Bonus points if you caught the film reference)
Steve is much lighter than Skarsgård. He’s a little more user friendly in that I don’t feel like I’m trying to wrestle him into submission. He just… works. He also runs on the Ryobi One+ 18v battery platform, which is both source of one of my favorite and least favorite things about the sander.
One of my pet peeves with Skarsgård is the cord–specifically, trying to wrangle the sander while keeping the cord away from any moving parts. On more than one occasion I’ve wound up with the cord over my shoulders like a snake charmer with a boa constrictor, which isn’t probably the safest thing in the world, especially when your sander tries to make a run for it. Not having to deal with that is one of the big draws to having a cordless sander.
Is the sanding belt smaller? Sure. But not so much that I really noticed a difference. My only major gripe is the same as I would have with any battery powered sander–the battery eventually runs out. With the last generation of compact batteries that I have, I ran it out sanding within 15 minutes. Ryobi’s newest generation of batteries are supposed to extend the runtime on the brushless tools, but as of yet I don’t have any to test it with. Once I have some of the newer style batteries, I’ll update my review.
