Best hand sander for round overs?

[Greg Parrish]

Doing a lot of cutting boards and the like and my current ridgid orbital and 16gal ridgid shopvac with 2 1/4” attached to it are wearing my arm and wrist out. Is there a better sander for this type of edging to smooth these edges after they go through the router table roundover bit?

393443

393444

[Bill McNiel]

Greg,
About 6 or 7 years ago I drank the green kool aid and have been very pleased, not only with their sanders' performance but the ergonomics. I literally can sand all day and without pain (BTW- I'm turning 70 in a month and have relatively normal/weak hand strength). For your cutting boards I would suggest either the ETS 125 or their Linear Sander (don't know its number) with garnet paper.
Just my opinion - Bill

[Greg Parrish]

Greg,
About 6 or 7 years ago I drank the green kool aid and have been very pleased, not only with their sanders' performance but the ergonomics. I literally can sand all day and without pain (BTW- I'm turning 70 in a month and have relatively normal/weak hand strength). For your cutting boards I would suggest either the ETS 125 or their Linear Sander (don't know its number) with garnet paper.
Just my opinion - Bill

Thanks. I’ll look at that model. I like their sanding table with the whip that holds the hose overhead but I’m guessing it’s probably 2 bills for that table, dust extractor and sander.

Do they only work with festool paper? I don’t have a festool dealer local so that is a consideration.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Greg, what kind of wood is that bottom stripe on the second picture ?

[Greg Parrish]

The bottom board is Bocote, Maple, Jatoba and Purple Heart. The Jatoba was pretty golden, yellow looking on this board versus the pinkish color of the rest I have. The ribbon is burned in.

393450

[Van Huskey]

The Festool is the LS 130

393451

Alternatively, you could look at foam pad abrasives

393452

[Nick Decker]

Another vote for the ETS 125, and no, you don't have to use Festool paper. I regularly use Abranet discs on mine. Maybe not available locally for you, but Amazon is your friend.

[Ted Phillips]

I usually chamfer the corners first with a block plane, then use a cork block with sand paper to complete the round over. Fast and simple.

[Brad Shipton]

The festool linear sander is slower than molasses. It works great if you really need to maintain a profile shape, but I cannot imagine a need to hold an exact radii for a cutting board. A profile head on a shaper that can be dialed down slow enough would be nice, but you would need a whack of volume.

[Warren Lake]

my dynabrade does that easiy. Nitto makes one with a block you can shape as well I dont see it, i Have a light line on the dynbrade you can flip it around likely nothing, its very light no line weight hanging off it.

[Steve Jenkins]

I’ll second the dynabrade. Very light and having the palm switch puts your hand in a good position for rounding over

[Warren Lake]

there are different models one on the right the lighter one i use more on round overs then the line is lighter as well. you can fling it all over. My original Dynabrades felt as heavy as a 50 year old Skill Saw



393491

[Tom Bender]

Hi Greg
I also do a good deal of rounding over with a router followed by ROS. I do it without connecting dust collection to avoid stress and mostly to let me control the sander better, especially on the corners. Sometimes I set up a dust pickup and sometimes a dust mask. Sometimes I just turn on the overhead air cleaner and sometimes I just limit the time I spend in the shop after sanding.

Altogether it is not a very satisfactory solution. Hope we get some better answers.

BTW, I have two sanders, one with coarse and one with fine paper. This is way better than switching paper.

[Todd Bender]

Sanding roundovers is a shortcut to carpal tunnel issues ...just ask my wrists.

[Lee Schierer]

Have you considered changing your router cutters? I have a Freud Quadracut round over bit and it cuts extremely smooth cuts that need little if any sanding.