I definitely agree with you here, ive done a lot of work with these belt sanders and its one of my favorite tools, i use the $90 harbor freight Baxter one and it feels exactly the same as the $250+ matco ones ive used in the past, and its been going strong for about 2 years now, and the purple 3m cubatron belts are hands down the best ive ever used, they seem to last way longer than the orange norton blaze belts