Palm Sanders for Corners?

[Carroll Courtney]

Thanks for Project Finish section for help coming up with what paint I need to put a fresh look over my white lacquer finish cabinets. Now I need little help with selection for a palm sander to get into lots and lots of corners. All I need to do is kinda rough up the old finish and maybe smooth it out some so thinking along the lines of 320grit and up. But what sander, there's appears to be not a lot out there for getting into corners so between choices and budget I'm limited. I know that Fastool is top of the line but that's out of my league. So I have found that Skil makes sander for corners which kinda comes to point and me being cheap so does HF's Bauer. Either one is less than 40.00 so not to expensive if they actually works. But before I get down that low of quality, what would others suggest if they were looking for sander get into corners? Just give an ideal of my kitchen which is not big, so there are no large surfaces but only small surfaces. Looking for ideals,thanks SMC members

[mark mcfarlane]

Fwiw, by the time I’m at 320 grit I’m sanding by hand. Rectangular piece of cork underneath. Fairly easy to get into corners, you just need to pull out of the corner parallel to the grain. I have a festool delta sander but never use it over 150 grit, maybe 220 once. The world of lacquer may be entirely different…

[Carroll Courtney]

Mark I may end up doing just that, I don't want to sand no more than what I have to cause there is just to many tight spots to get into. I am also considering using a deglosser instead of sanding.

[johnny means]

I've had the Porter Cable, the black and Decker, and the Festool. They all suffer from the same problems, the corner of the abrasive is delicate and gets ripped off faster than a tourist in NYC and they chew up adjacent surfaces. I usually just use blocks with sand paper glued to them. I haven't actually collected data on it, but I'm pretty sure hand sanding ends up being faster because I can take a single corner through four grits with almost no handling or change over time. It is tougher on my arthritic hands.

[Dave Cav]

The Dynabrade Dynabug is a nice little quarter sheet (non-random) pneumatic orbital sander. Small, light and expensive. I finally got one earlier this year and really like it for what it does.

[Carroll Courtney]

Thanks for all suggestion, I am going to give deglosser a try see how that works. If it don't then back to sander ideal, Johnny I see your point about the tip. Dave I would love Dynabug but like you say they are expensive but they are best from what I have read over the yrs.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Delta ( triangular) sander is classical for that application.

As I do not do so much of that task, I use my multitool for that application. It works for me.

[Bob Cooper]

I just bought the festool triangular sander and really like it. I only have a few green tools so I don’t buy green at the drop of a hat. It’s very smooth and must have a pretty tight patterns. I just got it and only used it for a non-delicate operation so I don’t have all the facts but I was surprised at how smooth it felt compared to my green orbital

[Paul F Franklin]

Like Osvaldo, I use my multi-tool with a triangle sanding pad on the occasions when I need to do this. Usually, I take the time to apply blue tape (the thicker variety) to the adjacent surfaces to avoid marking them when the base of the sander vibrates against them. Or I will hold a scrap of laminate between the sander and the adjacent surface to prevent marking.

[mark mcfarlane]

Like Osvaldo, I use my multi-tool with a triangle sanding pad on the occasions when I need to do this. Usually, I take the time to apply blue tape (the thicker variety) to the adjacent surfaces to avoid marking them when the base of the sander vibrates against them. Or I will hold a scrap of laminate between the sander and the adjacent surface to prevent marking.

Thanks Paul for the tips on protecting the adjacent surface, this will be helpful.