Small sanders

[Brian Holcombe]

I need a small sander for detail work (chair making) curious to see what's out there. I haven't found much smaller than 5-6" diameter.

Furthermore I have an 150/3 from Festool that I really like but the tool just kills my hands. Whatever level of vibration makes my hands ache terribly within an hour or so of sanding. It's been dragging along a bit of work that should not be taking so long.

Curious to your suggestions.

[Jim Becker]

Weird that you have vibration issue with the 150/3...I bought mine specifically to get rid of vibration from the old PC sanders I used previous to the Festool! I no longer get numb when sanding, even after a very long time.

That said, the RO90 is smaller and has ROS mode as well as the much more aggressive rotary mode just like the larger versions. There are also non-ROS detail type sanders available from multiple names including Festool. I had one, but for the work I was doing at the time, it just never got used so I sold it. I can see that type of sander being quite useful for the chair making process, especially with the "pointy" tip that can get into tight spots with less chance of damage that can come if the edge of a rotating abrasive disk hits something adjacent to the area being sanded.

[Bryan Lisowski]

I would say the Ro90, but if the 150/3 bothers you probably not an option. Maybe an air sander similar to use in automotive applications. I also think this would get you smaller sizes.

[Jamie Buxton]

Mirka offers a 3” electric ROS. They also have a 3” pneumatic sander, so don’t get confused. Metabo sells a 3” ROS.

[Michael A. Tyree]

I have your answer! I also build chairs plus other wood stuff. For the record I have also done much auto body work (as a sideline but at a high level) and own several DA sanders and a bunch of various styles of wood sanders. My hands are falt worn out but like the energizer bunny I keep on making sawdust. Sanders are often brutal to ones hands, mine dislike any tool with vibration as CTS release surgery only buys you time, so to speak and mny surgery was 20 yrs ago.
I recently bought a 2" & 3" orbital sander on Amazon. They are cheaper there than ebay BTW. They come with both size velcro holders too. When I ordered I bought a pack of soft back for rounding/rounded edges too. They are Chinese but have high reviews from experienced users as myself. Makes sense to have a small abrasive disc and a very small, smooth sander that fits in the palm of you hand on pieces like rockers and chair arms, etc.!
I'll share a tip on a deal for the discs- I have had exceptional service from the Korean brand abrasives brand- "Sungold" and it just so happens that Amazon has a seriously good deal o these small discs in that brand, 100 grit only is dirt cheap and I bought 3 boxes myself.
Look @ 2" orbital sanders and the cheap all black ones sold by many sellers. Also compare to the Onyx 320, Astro orbital sander that's more pricey but I was attracted to as well.
The one I bought has already had a good workout! It is very smooth! I do suggest placing some blue loctite on the set screw that holds the sanding disc in place. I am running gold discs on mine and wish I had owned it long ago. Yet another great aspect of these smaller orbital sanders aside from practicality of size is the less expensive discs plus they use very little air volume compared to a full sized sander.

[Brian Holcombe]

I’ve been looking at the RO90, but hesitant. The Mirka 3” looks nice.

Michael, I want to avoid pneumatics as my AC really isn’t built for that kind of volume, it’s only for operating control systems. I use a Dynabrade finger sander for light work and I must pace myself. Not buying a bigger AC as I like mine a lot and don’t have room for two.

[Patrick Walsh]

Brian I have the same problem.

I touch a sander for 5 minutes and my hands are sore burning and going numb almost instantly. Affects my elbows also after maybe 15 minutes.

I use air Sanders daily. Don’t do it they are worse than Festool.

I don’t know the answer other than not sand. Oddly enough I can hand sand for quite a while before I have similar issues.

My favorite sander from a sanders perspective is the iron shaped Festool. I also have the new brushes 150/3 and it’s better than a air sander but still wreaks havok on my hands. Sadly I think the answer is not to sand.

The RO90 is brutal FYI!

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks, Patrick. I do very little sanding but it seems impossible to avoid for sculpted chairs. I suppose there is no magic bullet.

[Doug Garson]

Have you considered the sanding attachments for an oscillating multi tool? I use my Rockwell Sonicrafter for detail sanding. The smallest pad doesn't work very well as it heats up and the velcro fails but the larger pad works well.

[John K Jordan]

I need a small sander for detail work (chair making) curious to see what's out there. I haven't found much smaller than 5-6" diameter.

Furthermore I have an 150/3 from Festool that I really like but the tool just kills my hands. Whatever level of vibration makes my hands ache terribly within an hour or so of sanding. It's been dragging along a bit of work that should not be taking so long.

Curious to your suggestions.

Are you looking for electric sanders or can you consider pneumatic?

I use two kinds of small pneumatic - I like them because they are very light weight and transfer no vibration to my hands. One is a Grex that came with a 2" disk and I bought a 1" disk and extensions for it. (I like this so much I have two) The other is a 3" palm sander from Woodturners Wonders.

421399 421400

JKJ

[Bob Hinden]

Two suggestions:

Try turning down the speed and vacuum force. That might reduce the vibration.

You might also try to Festool ETS 125, it has a 2mm stroke and have very little vibration.

Bob

[Tom M King]

3M makes some nice ones, and other clones, or companies that seem to have the same thing, like Surf Prep.

[Greg Parrish]

I had similar prob with a regular RO making my hands burn and numb. I got the 125 EC festool and it’s been wonderful. Can sand for hours with no issues in hands now.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks gents!

[Tom Bain]

I know that gloves are generally taboo in the shop, but might be worth a try (if you haven’t already) before forking out for a new sander.

[Brian Holcombe]

I have no qualms with wearing gloves for sanding, I may well give that a try. Thank you.

[Derek Cohen]

I need a small sander for detail work (chair making) curious to see what's out there. I haven't found much smaller than 5-6" diameter.

Furthermore I have an 150/3 from Festool that I really like but the tool just kills my hands. Whatever level of vibration makes my hands ache terribly within an hour or so of sanding. It's been dragging along a bit of work that should not be taking so long.

Curious to your suggestions.

Hi Brian

I have a 150mm Mirka Ceros - now replaced by the Deros. The difference is that the Deros has an integrated transformer, and is a little chunkier. The Ceros is compact, with electronic speed controls, and just wonderful to use vertically (so light).

https://i.postimg.cc/G2Ky09Hc/Mirka-Ceros.jpg

Here it is using a 27mm Festool hose (into a Festool CT26E). Since this was taken, I use a Mirka 27mm antistatic hose, which weights less than the Festool and feels more flexible (cheaper too!). These sanders are built for Abranet mesh, and their dust control is superb.

Worth looking into the Deros, which can take both 125- and 150mm pads.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Pete Staehling]

Look @ 2" orbital sanders and the cheap all black ones sold by many sellers. Also compare to the Onyx 320, Astro orbital sander that's more pricey but I was attracted to as well.
How loud are these little pneumatic sanders?

[Larry Edgerton]

Brian, I have a Snap-On 3" pistol grip RO air sander that is my go to for small items. I have had it for 20 years and it still works well. There are cheap copies that you could try it out with for little money and if the concept works for you then buy the Snap-On. Easy on the hands.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thank you, all!

Derek, that one is probably highest on my list at the moment. Basically I need a 3” sander so it’s not a wasted experiment even if it produces the same effect and changing manufacturers seems like a reasonable plan in the attempt to find a different result.

[Tom M King]

I have a friend that builds custom cars, who uses a number of the 3M electric random orbit sanders. I've played with them, and they are really nice. I can't find them online right now-only the pneumatic equivalents. These are the same thing though. If 3M still makes them, they have a larger range of orbit size choices.
https://surfprepsanding.com/product-category/sanders/electric-sanders/

[Mark e Kessler]

It's not small like you are looking for but I have the Festool 571897 ETS EC 125/3 EQ and it seems to have very little vibration, I cant imagine a RO having any less.

Mark

[Brian Holcombe]

Ordered a Deros, the abranet abrasives and the fact that they make such a big deal about the low vibrations sold me. Precious few things have become so urgent in such a short time. My wife also warned me that I better get on it so as not to shorten my career needlessly. Working in pain is torturous.

Apparently the Deros fits the Festool hose and has a systainer. Not sure how they managed that one, but I’m happy for it. Finding storage for the endless array of tools does get to be a nussciance. I would not have minded if my Dynabrade sander had a similar system, instead I dedicated part of my toolbox to it.

I ended up buying the 5” so that I can make my festool redundant after some trial time.

I really like my festool sander but I just can’t suffer this, the time I can work with a sander gets shorter everyday throughout the week, by Friday 5 minutes at a time max.

Abranet should outlast Granat. I run through Granat disks in a hurry, so it would be nice to consume the entire abrasive before tossing the disk. Granat clogs on anything other than clean wood.

[Jim Becker]

I have no qualms with wearing gloves for sanding, I may well give that a try. Thank you.

I got a set of gel padded fingerless gloves about a decade and a half ago for work at the lathe and sanding to reduce vibration...I think I got them from a sports equipment store at the time, but these days, you can pretty much "click" for anything on Amazon. :) I stopped needing them once I upgraded my sanders. 'Could be worth a try for you, however!

[johnny means]

I like my little Festool, but it's just too bulky for complex shapes. I find that on irregular objects, it's often easier to hand sand. I start at 40 grit and don't skip any grits. Manipulating any powered sander is just way too taxing on these arthritic hands.

[Andrew Joiner]

I got a plain leather glove that fits loosely. I hot melted a velcro strap to the back. Now I can slip on the glove and strap my hand to the sander just tight enough so I don't have to grip the sander much. I can still wiggle my hand out and leave the glove strapped to the sander.
When I use a RO sander for more than a 5 minutes, especially on vertical surfaces, I always strap my hand to it. It helps with vibration and grip. You can relax your grip almost completely and just guide the sander.

[Brian Holcombe]

Good ideas. I do also have sand but if you will, imagine hand sanding the bulk of 8 chairs at a time. I tune edges by hand as that seems the best way.

[Derek Cohen]

Brian, a couple of recommendations ...

For the Deros, get the Mirka hose. The fittings into the CT26E are the same as the Festool, but the two sanders connect differently. It is a pain to remove the Festool fitting each time to attach to the Deros. The 27mm Mirka antistatic hose (black) is lighter and more flexible than the Festool. Fortunately, the Mirka hose is about half the Festool in cost.

Here is a test I did some while back (the hand sanders were to provide an equal weight). It was clear that the Mirka was easier to move around ...

https://i.postimg.cc/Dw0ZDTTJ/4.jpg

Get the Mirka hand sander. These use Abranet and have dust extraction. The amount of dust created by a hand sander is more than a power sander with dust control, and it is dangerous in the quantities you do. In addition, dust control speeds up and improves the quality of sanding as it removes the dust that interferes.

Here it is with the Festool hose (see my recommendation below) ...

https://i.postimg.cc/NfjS7RyL/FinishingTheDrawers_html_6237eaad.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/1XJT13d9/FinishingTheDrawers_html_c3d974f.jpg

Get the dedicated 20mm Mirka hose for these sqnders. They are incredibly light (and cheap!). I started out using a 27mm Festool, which is very heavy by comparison.

This is the difference between a 20- and 27mm hose ...

https://i.postimg.cc/QxXVQ7Yq/5.jpg

The end of the Mirka hose fits the CT26E perfectly.

https://i.postimg.cc/0jCjg5jm/6.jpg


One reminder about the Deros (which applies to all sanders) - turn down the suction on the vacuum cleaner to reduce stiction, and lower the speed on the sander to reduce vibration.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks, Derek. Greatly appreciated, I’ll probably space out a few of these things over time but I will take all of your recommendations.

[Brian Holcombe]

Received the Mirka Deros today. Very much enjoy this sander, my wrist would be immobile by now and it's fine.

Nice and light, moves around the chair no problem. Dust collection is great, I have the vacuum about 3/4 power for chair sanding (many curves) and I worked a flat piece at 1/4 power and both have been a big improvement due to the abranet abrasive.

[Jim Becker]

Nice choice, Brian. You'll find that in addition to curved/flat, that varying the vacuum for dust extraction will also be affected by the abrasive...as you move to finer and finer, you'll sometimes need to reduce vacuum to avoid sticking. It's not unlike the effect you get while face jointing a board...the flatter it gets, the "stickier" it gets on the smooth surface.

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks, Jim! I do currently tune the vacuum as you mention.

[Jacob Reverb]

I know that gloves are generally taboo in the shop, but might be worth a try (if you haven’t already) before forking out for a new sander.

+1

I use chainsaws a fair amount (trim work!) and had the same problem with vibration. Picked up some vibration-dampening gloves on ebay and they've helped a lot.

[Derek Cohen]

+1

I use chainsaws a fair amount (trim work!) and had the same problem with vibration. Picked up some vibration-dampening gloves on ebay and they've helped a lot.

Jacob, your comments reminded me of a tool buying encounter I had 25 years ago.

I was in the market for a new 12v cordłess drill for the workshop ... in other words, furniture making orientated. The choice came down to two drills, one from Panasonic and one from Festool. I had heft a great number in my quest for the best balanced drill in the hand. At the time I was suffering from severe tennis elbow (too much squash), and holding a drill out in front of me was painful. The elbow injury offered great sensitivity to the variations of each drill on offer, and it was this way that I was able to reduce the choices to these two models. In the end I went for the Panasonic. It was just that little better than the Festool. Interestingly, 25 years later I still have and use this drill. I also have a Festool C12, purchased 4 years ago, and the Panasonic continues to stack up well.

I guess that the moral of the story is that the better tools do look after our physical issues.

Brian, great choice, and I wish you well in its use.

Regards from Singapore ... on my way to Munich.

Derek