Any Opinions or comments on the Clark Alto OBS 18 DCS Floor sander? I'm going to put down an oak floor for the first time. Any advise would be welcome.Thanks Mike

That is an orbital sander or sometimes called a plate sander. It will sand raw wood floors but it will be SLOW, even with a course sandpaper. It is good for the beginer because it is difficult to make mistakes with that type of machine. It will not do the quick leveling job a belt or drum sander would but if you start with a very course grit and work up to a 100 grit final cut, you could do it. A big advantage is you wouldn't need to rent three different sanders like pros use (drum, edger,buffer) That machine will do all three of those functions, sort of. It works better in refinishing where the floors are already flat and level and you are just trying to strip of the old finish. It works GREAT on sanding/buffing between coats of floor finish because it doesn't leave any swirl in the finish or floors. It's vacumm system works just OK. Other guys have had good results with the orbital disc sanders which use three to four rotating discs in an orbital motion. The one I used worked great but had a odd, intermittent vibration. Clark designs and builds great sanders but sometimes, quality control and durability have been an issue. The German sanders are more reliable.