Which Sander?

A random Orbital Sander will be the most useful. Porter Cable and Bosch are the two that I have experience with and the both work great. Check out the review section here on Lumberjocks.

I think I have used my belt sander about 10 times in the last 10+ years.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I would go with a ROS as your next sander. I assume by a belt sander you mean a hand held one. These are very aggressive and unless you do very large / thick work you probably will not much use for one. Once again take this with a grain of salt if your style calls for large knock downs a belt sander would work for you. Just my two cents.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

“A random Orbital Sander will be the most useful” to quote Gary above. I have a Bosch and hooking up a dust collector to it is at best troublesome. The 1st thing I’d look for in a ROS is one that hooks up to a dust collector easily.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

I too use my ROS far more than my belt sander. I have only used it for flattening large glue-ups such as counter tops. But even that is fading as I like to use a card scraper now.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I usually smooth larger panels with planes anyways, so yes… most of my sanding is going to be general sanding probably the roughest grit around 100 moving up to 240 or so.

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

I bought Porter-Cable’s 4” belt sander many years ago, still have it, hardly use it. It can be too aggressive and in a moment you can do more damage then good. It has its place, but not for surface sanding in my book.

My sander of choice for surface sanding is my 5” orbital sander. It’s more aggressive then a 1/4 sheet sander but not as aggressive as a belt sander. I keep 80, 120, 150, 220, and 400 grit discs on hand which offers me all the choices of aggressiveness I need. I makes short work of getting anything ready for finishing.

I have a DeWalt, it was a toss up between that one and Porter-Cables (but not the $129 PC, I think that is outrageous for a sander of that type, way too much for one, for what it does), and if I were to do it over it would still be between those two.

-- -Curt, Milwaukee, WI

what do you guys think of this sander?

http://www.tylertool.com/bo5010kr.html?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

I would try it first but for that price, it seems like a good deal. I have a Porter Cable and like it although the vibration is a little much. My hand gets numb if I have to sand a lot. Much prefer using my planes if I can.

I have a few of the Porter Cable 1/4 sheet sanders, they last a long time. I have a couple that are 15-20 years old. My sail boat has a lot of exposed teak that I need to deal with every year so I keep two on the boat as well. I Like being able to cut my own sheets, I use an old hacksaw blade mounted on a board with a thin washer under each end of the blade. I found on the boat that the velcro type sanding discs where a lot higher cost than just cutting my own.

-- Life is to short to own an ugly boat.

I like the random orbitals. Like Blankman said, with a few different grits, you can accomplish almost any sanding task. I don’t however go for those reconditioned tools any longer. Every time I have ever bought one, it was nothing but trouble. Some people probably get away with it. I never do.

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

The price on that Makita looks good. The Makita BO5012K got good marks in a 1996 FWW review, with a good scratch pattern. They make good tools in my experience.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

My general impression on Mikita is that they are “second” grade tools. OK for the occasional home repair guy similar to B&D but not adequate for serious wood workers.
I have two Porter Cable 5” ROS and use them often. One is the older style Model 7335 that uses adhesive disks (it comes with hook pad). It is more aggressive but changing adhesive disks that are not worn out can be a little wasteful because the disk can seldom be re-attached. I fold them back on themselves and use them for hand work. It has a dust collector but must be attached to a vacuum which is a pain.
The other is the newer low profile type with the hook pad. While not quite as aggressive the quick change of grit with the hook pad is very convenient and the built in dust collector works moderately.
My Recommendation: Go for the Porter Cable low profile with the dust collector.

-- Les B, Oregon

The concern I would have is that it is a reconditioned sander, and agree with Gary’s comment about reconditioned tools. I am a firm believer that, with tools, you get what you pay for.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I’ve had 2 porter cable ROS’s burn up in the last 3 years. The last one the brake quit working and would just spin out of control if you didn’t have pressure on the tool. I switched to a variable speed Milwaukee and it works pretty good. But i’ve also gotten away from sanding as much, I’ve started using smoothing planes, scraper planes and card scrapers to get my final smoothing on my wood.
The new Porter cable with the low profile has gotten alot of good reviews and they are supposed to have changed the type motor that they are using.

-- Joey, Magee, Ms http://woodnwaresms.com

I read a few really good reviews on the Milwaukee 5” ROS so I bought one about a week ago. So far I’m very pleased with it.

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

I have two orbital sanders, an $11 refurbished B&D FS500 that takes 1/4 sheets of sandpaper, and an expensive Festool (all their stuff is expensive) EQ400 that takes special velcro backed 80×133 mm sanding sheets (also expensive). The one thing they both have in common is that they have dust sucking holes in the pad. For the B&D, there is a separate hole punch pad to correctly punch holes in the 1/4 sheet so that they are in line with the holes in the pad.

Both of these sanders suck up virtually all of the sanding dust when attached to a shop vac. The little rear bags that came with both are practically useless.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Woodcraft has the PC 343 VS on sale for $59.99 right now ($20.00 off). I have 2 of them and love them. It’s a 5” round, hook & loop. The variable speed is nice. I have replaced both pads at least once due to user error (don’t lend them to non-woodworkers).

Joey – if you take the 3 screws out of the base and remove it, you will see a small belt. It looks like an O-ring. Every once in a while these need to be replaced. Your’s probably broke. You can get a pack of them for a couple of bucks from PC.

-- NorthWoodsMan

Joey,

That happened on my DeWalt, I replaced a plastic or nylon ring under the pad and it was as good as new. Cost me a buck I think. Bought a spare but I haven’t worn it out again yet. I think this is normal wear and tear, the fact that it is replaceable is a good design. I would think PC has something similar.

-- -Curt, Milwaukee, WI

I would get a ROS, depending on what you have to spend. I would go with portercable, or Bosch. I lean toward the Bosch. I have a 6” 3727 H&L it’s a great sander, I also have a 5” porter cable (733) it’s been ok, but the 3727 is a great sander. With a vaccuum attached it’s virtually dustless. There are other good brands
as mentioned in the other comments. ROS is your best bet.

-- -- Doug H, MI

My brothers and I all use Rigid 5” ROS’s. (seperate shops) We have been very pleased with them and they seem to last. (3 yrs so far.) I was skeptical at first, as we also have Porter Cable and other brands, but the Rigid is by far the favorite.

http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/R2600/EN/index.htm

Funny I just came across this posting. I stood at Lowe’s last night for about 45 minutes staring at the finish sanders. Looked at the skil and black and decker for a bit since they all have neat interchangeable heads. Then I realized that these “heads” mostly mean just pieces of extra plastic which seemed to be a liability for a tool which would get that much abuse.

Looked at the other brands too. Based on a reivew here on Lumberjocks I decided the Bosch 1297DK 2 amp 1/4-Sheet Sander was a good bet. Picked it up for $52.

I used it last night (WAAAAY too late at night mind you. Hope the neighbors couldn’t hear!) to sand a bunch of white pine. I wholly agree with the review I read – virtually no dust thanks to the collection system, not too loud, and very little vibration on my hand. I could sand for hours with this tool.

Hope this helps!

ROS is the way to go. I have had the porter cable, ridgid, and the milwaukee. My opinion is the new porter cable are to heavy the older ones seem to have been lighter so it wayed in on my decision when I replaced it. I then bought the ridgid and I am still using it. It has good dust collection but my problem is I bump the switch and turn it off when using it. I bought the milwaukee when it came out and its the one I always reach for first. I have no complaints about it. I still use the ridgid so I don’t have to switch paper.

-- Dustmaker, Kansas

I had more luck with the Bosch than the PC personally. However, if I could have ANY ROS, it would be the Festool.

-- Jeremy, Baton Rouge, LA - rayburnfinefurniture.com

I think ROS would be your best choice. You will find that you would use it much more than a belt sander. I have Porter Cable and Bosch. I like both of them. The PC is a bit larger than the Bosch that I have. The PC is a 6” and the Bosch a 5”. They both work well. I tend to use the PC for quick work, and the Bosch for final finishing.

-- Wayne - Plymouth MN

Thanks all for the advice… I think im going to watch the sales for a couple of weeks and figure out which ROS I buy then.

-- San Diego, CA US Navy

I would recommend a ROS also. I have two. Both are Festool and both give brillianbt results. For most purposes from rough sanding to final finish sanding, its very hard to go past the Festool RO150/EQ This has orbital and random orbital modes and excellent dust extraction. It has a 5mm stroke. If you really want the bees knees type finish then the ETS150/3 is the sander of choice. 3mm stroke gives a finish as smooth as a baby’s behind.

Regards,

Rob

-- http://www.damnfinefurniture.com

interpim…you might check Ebay. I find there are a lot of good deals for tools on there. I bought the PC there for much less than at a tool store.

-- Wayne - Plymouth MN

My favorite sander is an 18” inline pneumatic sander made for body work that I got off of ebay. Accepts many kinds of sandpaper and is especially good on larger surfaces (like using a large plane). Only problem is that it needs a pretty good size compressor to run it.