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The bosch ventaro sells for around $99 at mitre ten(could have changed).
It works great there is no dust, folds back into its own case which is the vacuum.
It can also can be used as a shop vac, dust extractor, inflator, or simply just as a car vacuum. Being bosch it won't break down and hasn't happpened for me.
Some images here as well
Maybe I'm expecting a bit too much, but I really didn't have a happy relationship with my Ventaro "outfit". Can't really be called a sander, can it?
First, the good points: The price paid, $80, is below a similarly specced DIY standard large delta sander, with an extremely powerful vac. as a deal sweetener.
1400 watts of Vacuum/dust extraction exceeds any other vac I've ever used, including older Festos, new Festools, and an assortment of Mieles up to 2500 watts.
Superior dust collection abilities to any other sander I've used to date, extracted Festools included. High praise indeed!
Useful attachments/extras, including a fantastic and extremely powerful blower nozzle for cleaning out tool vents and armatures, adaptable hose ends for other tools, and a natty little suction adapter for dust free drilling in walls etc.
Bosch reliability and quality (although originating in Turkey).
Extremely lightweight air turbine powered delta sanding head that takes standard hole pattern (read readily available at most hardware stores) sanding papers.
Now the bad: Despite the prodigious power and airflow developed by the vacuum, the air turbine in the sanding head allows the tool to "bog down" too easily. It's unsuitable for heavier sanding jobs, such as paint stripping.
The vac. hose is ludicrously short. This retains max. airflow, but of what use is this "renovators tool" if it can't reach even an 8 foot ceiling without being perched precariously on a chair atop a table?
By it's nature, the limited turbine power of the sanding "head" is slowed significantly by the dust generated by sanding blocking the pores of the vacuum bags, further limiting available sanding power way before the bag has actually filled to the point of requiring disposal and replacement. It consequently has an expensive preference for new, clean vacuum bags only!
No vacuum power control. So what, you may ask! It's (obviously) not required while sanding, but when drilling into hard plastered soft brick walls in a heritage listed house, the drilling extraction adaptor, while self clinging to the wall with limpet-like tenacity, is simply too powerful. An unforseen consequence of this excess vacuum is neat oval shaped irremediably indelible red brick stains in painted and wallpapered surfaces caused by particle impregnation in the wall surface! In other words, said item is much, much worse than useless!
In summary, this outfit is indeed suitable for a DIY style renovator. While promising much, it's inherent flaws preclude its use for anything other than casual odd jobs. I personally found the outfit frustratingly flawed in crucial aspects of performance, and ended up giving it away to somebody I considered less demanding, in the hope that it would be of more use to them.
I agree with the second post about the disadvantages of the Bosch Ventaro. However I bought one of these cheaply secondhand.
I threw out the vacuum cleaner part but kept the sanding unit which I attached to my commercial WAP Alto dust extractor via the WAP's 5meter long hose used to collect dust from portable power tools. The WAP has variable suction power and a good large dustbag. This overcomes all the problems the second post mentioned.
I only use it for light sanding of flat trimwork before re-varnishing it. It works very well to stop sanding dust inside the house.
Paul