I have the Craftsman 27957. Frankly its the worst piece of crap tool I've ever seen. I bought it last Spring, and on the first day it fell apart. It fell apart a lot! I tried locktite-ing it. I replaced the offending socket head screw with various anti-vibration solutions. From the first time I saw how the thing was held together I wondered what #@*&% designed this? BTW I'm pretty sure this was manufactured for Sears by Riobi. Then to top it all off it smokes and stops completely. My fault this time, (graphite powder (in epoxy) is a conductor, who knew? Shouldn't the motor be protected from the dust?).

Is it one bad one in a bunch? not if the other have the same fastening method. I'm looking at Porter Cables now.

: The January '04 issue of Consumer Reports has ratings for various power
: sanders. The looked at 4 categories; ROS, finishing, detail and belt. In
: the ROS category, they looked at 6 models, and ranked them, top to bottom,
: in the following order: Craftsman 27957, DeWalt DW423K, Makita B05012K,
: Ryobi RS241, Porter Cable Quicksand 333VS and the Craftsman 11623. The
: Ryobi scored a "best buy" rating at just $30. I was surprised to
: see my 333VS second from the bottom. Nonetheless... I remain very happy
: with it!