A different question about sheet sanders

[lcm1947]

I may be all wet but I just discovered that there are two different types of 1/4 sheet palm sanders or at least I think I did. For many many years I had a B&D sander but had to replace it about a year ago or so. Anyway when I used my new Ridgid one not too long ago I was rather disappointed that it was somewhat difficult to control compared to the B&D which is the only other one I had ever had the opportunity to use. So being somewhat disappointed in that I started looking around for another brand and discovered I think that some of these are orbit and some not. Well that could explain why I was kind of shocked at how this Ridgid one behaved. It's a orbit type one and the B&D wasn't. Big difference in the way an orbit one handles and a regular one. Is everybody else aware of this? So if this is true you need two different 1/4" sanders now or at least I do. I'm assuming that the orbit type would be a lot more aggressive then the plain old ones. Anybody know if I am correct or maybe all do orbit now? I'd be interested to know what you guys know about them. I do know that the Ridgid is a lot more aggressive then my old B&D but maybe I'm wrong but I swear it is - a lot more aggressive!

[MilDoc]

Yep. Have a Ridgid random orbital sander (ROS). Does a great job. And no, there are non-ROS pad sanders too.

[sweensdv]

I always thought that the orbiting 1/4 sheet sanders are newer technology and that the non-orbiting ones are old school. Better results and less visible marks with the orbiting.

[lcm1947]

MilDoc I too have the ROS but I'm talking about the square 1/4 orbit sanders not the Random orbital sanders like you have that are round. Yeah sweensdv that's what I'm so surprised about I didn't know there were two different types of orbit sanders. Maybe the new orbit are better but mine is pretty aggressive so I will also be buying a regular old fashion type one that's not quite so aggressive. Heck if when I want an aggessive one I'll use my ROS. Anyway that is great news because now I can buy another sander. A DeWalt! Wait maybe the DeWalt is orbit too. I'll have to check on that. Anyway I'll get one that's not.

[steve-u]

I have a Makita palm 1/4 sander and do not find it hard to control at all. If you want to try a different one check out the Porter Cable 342K 1/4 sheet palm sander on sale at Amazon right now for $33.83 shipped which I believe is a new model.

Steve

http://www.amazon.com/Porter-Cable-3...742763&sr=1-12

[sweensdv]

One thing you can do to tone down the aggressiveness of the Ridgid would be to use finer grits of paper than you might have used with your old sander.

[cabinetman]

Here's my ,02 cents. There are two distinctly different tools. The ROS (random orbit sander) has a rotating disk and a vibrating mechanism.

The second one is called a "Finishing Sander". They are usually squarish or rectangular. They just kinda vibrate. Some are sized to take up to a 1/3 sheet of sandpaper.

The term "Palm Sanders" I've heard referring to both types, and that's a little confusing. My conception of the "palm sander" makes me think of a "finishing sander". I think the term "palm" was devised to indicate that it fits into the palm of your hand and can be used with one hand. The ROS is more aggressive than the finishing sander. They have the capabilities of having vent holes through the pad that matches a sanding disk that allows for an extraction of sanding dust. The finishing sander will do an exemplary sanding procedure which I usually use for final finishing.

You can see some different models here.
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[LCHIEN]

Difference between orbital sander and Random orbital sander

there's some confusion because most of the square, 1/4 sheet sanders also have orbiting motion, that is, the pad has a small translations (side to side and back and forth) in an orbital fashion but does not rotate. If you were to slow it down and paint a white dot on it and photograph it then the pattern would be a small circle. Previous sanders just moved back and forth. The orbital pattern would make less obvious scratch marks if ou kept the sander moving. The "magnitude" of the orbit, or how big the circle was, makes a difference in the aggressiveness of the sander, and it varies from brand to brand. If you look closely you can still see swirl marks in the sanding pattern.

The ROS, or random orbit sander is earmarked by the round sanding pad and the pad rotates slowly. In this one I think the pattern of the orbit varies continuously, probably changing orbit size as the pad rotates. This is much less likely to leave recognizable swirl patterns than the plain orbital sanders. Again, the aggressiveness depends partly upon the relative sizes of the orbits. Some brands have bigger average orbits than others.

If you were to paint a dot on the pad, and time-lapse photograph it,
there would be two distinct motions. One is a large circle drawn as the pad slwoly rotated. The other, if you isolated the large rotation motion out, would be a small rotating squiggle, like you use when filling in the dots on those mutliple choice questions with a #2 pencil and they exhort you to fill the dot in completely.

The relative aggressivness of the square and ROS sanders is based upon the relative size and speed of the orbits, a VS sander can help control that, but it is impossible to look at a sander and predict the orbit size/aggressiveness.

[Ken Massingale]

"I may be all wet "

Ah! So you did wet your pants!

[DaveStL]

Here's my ,02 cents. There are two distinctly different tools. The ROS (random orbit sander) has a rotating disk and a vibrating mechanism.

The second one is called a "Finishing Sander". They are usually squarish or rectangular. They just kinda vibrate. Some are sized to take up to a 1/3 sheet of sandpaper.

Funny you should mention that. I have an old (early 1980's) Craftsman, think it's 1/3 sheet but might be 1/2, that has a switch to either orbit or go straight-line. Heavy, no dust collection, stock removal isn't up to par with a new dedicated ROS. Haven't used it in a while....

[lcm1947]

Yeah Loring you got it. I didn't know that though. I just thought they were all back and forth motion until I got this Ridgid. Heck I thought something was wrong with the darn thing when I first used it. Now I understand it was the orbit type. Big difference on control. I'm not so disappointed in it now as it will be fine for when I need a more aggressive 1/4 sheet sander but I now can start looking for one that's not so aggressive. I was just flat unaware that they made such a thing. Interesting about the size of the orbit pattern dictating how aggressive they are though. And Ken no not that kind of wet. DaveStl that's an excellent idea to be able to turn the orbit off. Keep from having to buy two sanders. Too bad it's a 1/3 or 1/5 sheet though. Now if it was a 1/4 sheet I'd be looking around for one. Well actually no I wouldn't I already have the orbit Ridgid. Oh well. Sweensdv I didn't know that and can't remember what grid I was using. I'll have to try that out and see. Maybe then owning just the one orbit would be fine then cause I would always get down to the fine grid anyway so then it would control better which I need it to do on certain projects. Hey Steve-U. Your Makita then is probably not the orbit type. Probably just back and forth like Loring was explaining about. That PC does look nice and will accept the round vac hoses which is a smart idea on PC's part. I don't recall but I don't think the ones before took a regular round vac hose but I might be wrong. I know some don't. That actually was one of the main reasons I bought Ridgid when I bought both the ROS and the sheet sander. The others I looked at that day at HP took an adapter so I went Ridgid. I just can't remember if the PC's did. HD may not have had a PC in stock. Anyway why a company would not use round is beyond me. Dumb idea on some engineers part.

[JimD]

I do not think they make a straight back and forth sander anymore. I had one at one time but I did not like it. I could hand sand as quickly as it would work. A belt sander sands in a straight line but not "finishing" sanders.

For figured wood or other situations where the best possible sanding job is desired, I think it pays to go back to hand sanding at the end. I go up to 320 with my Rigid 1/4 sheet palm sander (which has the small orbiting motion but not the larger scale random motion) then start at 320 sanding by hand going up to 400 or so. I did not used to think that the really fine grits made any difference but I tried it anyway on a gunstock of figured maple and I think it made the figure slightly more visible to go higher up in grit. It also does not add a lot of work since you are removing very little material to get the scratches left by 320 grit paper.

Jim

[lcm1947]

JimD I don't know for sure and you don't say that you know for sure so I'll have to check it out but I think some of the 1/4 sheet sanders are the old type. At least they don't mention that they orbit and you'd think they would if they had that feature. Promoting type thing you know. As far as finishing up by hand sanding I agree 100%. I always have and I too believe I can see a difference. And as you point out it's not a lot of work. I kind of feel the job isn't done until I hand sand at least a little and that's about all I do. I even kind of like that part. It allows me to go over every inch of the project checking for any goofs or anything.