About a year ago I bought a Triton half sheet orbital sander to finish off a desk I was building. It did the job well enough and my only negative comment is that it had that common arrangement of a sprung wire on each side to assist in securing the sandpaper sheet. It works but I don't find it that easy to use.

Fast forward to last week and I pulled it out to use on another desk that was close to being finished. When I started it up it ran super slowly, so slowly in fact that it was unuseable. I gave it a liberal squirt with compressed air and eventually got it working though there was a lot of vibration. I gave up in the end.

I had purchased it from Masters before they went bust so I got onto the Triton website to see what the warranty period was. 30 days. Yes you read that correctly, 30 days, with the option to 'register' it for an additional three years. I can't remember whether I did that or not but there was no response from "forgot password" so I assume not.

So I decided to pull it apart. The mechanism is simply a brushed motor that has a direct connection to an eccentric on the base (to provide the 'orbits') via two fans. In between the two fans is a small bearing which I think is the root of the problem. I think this bearing has become clogged with dust and has partially seized (thus the initial slow speed). My coaxing (I think) has caused the bearing to turn in its plastic housing and gives the impression it's working, but this also explains the vibration.

The one thing that really struck me about it though was that the insides of the tool was full of dust. There seemed to be little in the way of sealing so I think it was only a matter of time before this happened.

Yes it was cheap (~$110) but still I think I could have expected it to last longer than one job. If that's an example of Triton quality then I wouldn't buy another.

By comparison I bought a second hand Makita off Gumtree on the weekend and it's like chalk and cheese. Built like a brick outhouse, mechanism for securing the paper easy to use, and it's smooth and comfortable to operate. It cost $75 and I can see it being the last half sheet orbital sander I'll ever buy. It's confirmed for me that buying second hand Makita anything is a worthwhile proposition.