Thread: What Sander to use?

I think a belt sander would be too aggressive and too fast for the small pieces involved, also they have a nasty habit of not sitting flat (operator, never!) and you finish up with uneven surfaces.
OK for a big job but not for small pieces for finishing.
Orbitals tend to catch the corners of the work and rip open the dust holes on the sheet so this puts us back to the sheet sander, time consuming unless your budget extends to a drum sander.
I'd stick with the orbital sheet sander if it's only a short run.

Hi Iain,
Thanks for your reply hopefully over time this will be a long run.
Could you explain what is a sheet sander?
I thought the orbital was a long rectangular hand hand device, that is what I have. So what is an orbital or is that a circular sander?

A drum sander is maybe something I could afford not sure on prices.

cheers 3Landerblue

Drum sanders start at about $1100 but you will need a dust extractor as well, I think they start at about $400. Check out the carbatec website, they also have linishing sanders - like a large upturned belt sander. These might be suitable combined with an orbital sander, ie: work your way down through various grits and then finish up the finest grits with the orbital. 1200 grit seems awfully fine to be sanding timber with. I find I can get a smooth as glass finish by going down to 320 grit, spraying on sanding sealer, knocking off the nibs with 320 grit and then using 600 grit between coats. If you are trying to get a smooth as glass finish on bare timber you may need to look at using planes and scrapers.

BTW
Orbital sander= what you have
Random Orbital Sander= like triton attachment

Mick

I've just been reading another post and it describes the Festool Rotrex.
Maybe that is the way to go, not sure about the price tag though.

I wonder if there are similar sanders?
Seems to be the same principle as my Triton orbital attachment but that is very noisy and dusty.
Also I have to wait for the disc to stop spining before putting it down on the bench.

Thanks for the info and what a great site.

cheers 3Landerblue

3Landerblue

My personal preference would be the same as Mick's, that is I would use handplanes and/or scrapers. But these may not be available options for you.

The problem with power sanders, even one as gentle as a sheet sander, is that they tend to round over the edges of your work. You will struggle to keep that nice crispness. Don't even think of a belt sander!!

My solution would be to hand sand the pieces. Just wrap the sandpaper around a block of wood and sand with the grain. Start at 240 grit, move to 360, then 600 (as Mick suggested). Where you stop depends on your finish. There are others much more knowledgeable than I on this topic. The other day I hand sanded a small, curved item down to 2000, then oiled and waxed for a very smooth finish that let all the grain through.

Regards from Perth

Derek

My job is that of a sander, for over a year now, in a 2-pack spray painters shop where I'm the one who does all the sanding. (We'll some poor bastard has to do it ! Gotta pay them bills)

We use a random orbital air sander with a 3-5mm swing. (Basso air sander) for all our sanding work. When cabinet makers supply tables bench tops etc to us for sparying it has first usually been sanded at the cabinet shop with about a 180 grit finish prior to delivery to us.

I then sand the supplied bench top (for example) with 240 grit paper using the random orbital air sander. This is then given a sealer coat of clear sealer laqure (Laa-keer...have got a mental block about how to spell it sorry ) which is then re-sanded with 320 grit. The "bench top" is then re-sparyed with a top coat of clear and depending on what quality of surface finish is required another 1 or 2 top coats are then applied sanding down between coats with 320 grit paper.

My boss who is a trades qulafied proffesional spary painter who has been sparying furniture for 8 years now, says to never sand with any thin finer than 320 grit between coats as this can cause the next coat to "de-laminate" (peel) away from the coat below due to lack of adhesion between coats. May not happen for quite some time but will happen eventually.

When sanding down between coats it's criticall not to cut-through" (sand-through) the previous coat as this will leave a visable blemish, blotch pin holes etc on the next or final coat. You also have to make sure to remove all flecks of previous coat before applying the next coat (hold your job up to the light and make sur entire surface is one dull smooth finish). And remove ALL dust betwwen coats.

The type of work we do is for millionair mansions and maxi yatch owners who are willing to pay up to $120 a Sq/Mt for the finish we can do for them. (Eqivilent to a grand piano finish) All our sealers etc are 2 pack paints.

3landerblue,
if its going to be a regular occurance then fork out the dosh for a drumsander & dust extraction. or maybe even a thicknesser (dont know how well a 600 - 1000 dollar one would cope with too much redgum & jarrah thrown at it .)the only draw back with the drumsander is that it does take quite a bit of time.
seeyasoon mik.

Hey - why not try the obvious. I had a similar problem last year with pieces 500 x 400 x 35 . I thought of belt sanding them but it would have been time consuming and variable.

I found a local furniture maker who had his drum sanders permanently set up. M/C #1 would sand 120 /180 and the following macines would sand to table top finishing standard.

I dropped off a dozen pieces at a time - gave them a couple of days and it was done. They charged me a "slab" per job.

Check your Yellow Pages

Kind regards - xron