orbital sanders (not the random orbit kind)

[Steve LeLaurin]

Anyone else browse the many sites from Indonesia and Vietnam and other Asian countries to watch their woodworking skills? And notice that they often use a corded orbital hand sander (not random orbit) to do their first cut at smoothing? Anyone know where to find one of these? All I can find is the regular random orbit style. (I've tried to attach a sample pic, but it may fail on me.)

[Cameron Wood]

It's just a mini grinder with 4 1/2" or 5" sanding disks. Just the thing if you are into crude work and don't care about flat and true surfaces.

[Kevin Jenness]

I may be mistaken (I was once) but isn't that a rotary rather than an orbital sander? A rotary spins the disc on its central axis, an orbital pad moves in a very small circle without spinning, and a random orbital disc simultaneously spins and orbits eccentrically. A rotary disc sander can remove a lot of material fast but leaves obvious circular scratch patterns, an orbital leaves a repetitive pattern and is slow, while a random orbital leaves the least obvious pattern with intermediate stock removal. Rotary sanders are often used in automotive and marine work. Used carefully they can be very productive. I usually use a belt sander for initial levelling, but a lot of woodworkers use dual mode random orbital tools like the Festool Rotex.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Kevin's understanding of this is the same as mine. I take issue with Camerons observations because I get very good results with a spinning sander. This DeWalt is from Lowes. It is an excellent tool.

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[Cameron Wood]

Kevin's understanding of this is the same as mine. I take issue with Camerons observations because I get very good results with a spinning sander. This DeWalt is from Lowes. It is an excellent tool.

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For sanding a boat, or stripping siding, yeah, but do you use that for furniture and cabinetry?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

For sanding a boat, or stripping siding, yeah, but do you use that for furniture and cabinetry?

Yes. It is very helpful for removing planer and jointer knife marks, flattening face frames, ect. It is a first step followed by the R.O. I also use it to graduate guitar and mandolin tops, backs, and sides. I don't use the the removable handle for fine work. I do use both hands and grab it low. It is always used with dust collection. I use it with the vacuum hold down for thin, delicate, wood that requires precise thicknesing.

488617 488618 488619

A low budget thicknesing sander.

[Kevin Jenness]

Like many turners I use a small rotary disc in a close quarters angle drill, following up with a small pneumatic random orbit sander. Rotary sanders can do accurate work in the hands of a skilled worker but like hand-held belt sanders can also wreak havoc. Floor sanders use discs in edges and corners, but I bet those guys start off in closets when learning the trade.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I learned from a timber framer that a big grinder with a 24 grit disc is helpful for some rugged tasks.

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[Prashun Patel]

Steve, the tool you show is not a rotary sander; it looks like a normal angle grinder fitted with a sanding mandrel.

This is typically used for refining a rough shape. The flexible backing pad allows you to get into gentle concave contours like on a chair seat. You can almost "paint" the insides of curves with this. A normal sander won't have this kind of give - even with a softer backing pad.

These angle grinders don't typically have dust collection or variable speed, so they are dusty and can really gouge fast.

FWIW, there exist also carbide shaping wheels that can fit an angle grinder. The carbide wheels can aggressively shape and hog out a ton of material very quickly.

[Cameron Wood]

Yes. It is very helpful for removing planer and jointer knife marks, flattening face frames, ect. It is a first step followed by the R.O. I also use it to graduate guitar and mandolin tops, backs, and sides. I don't use the the removable handle for fine work. I do use both hands and grab it low. It is always used with dust collection. I use it with the vacuum hold down for thin, delicate, wood that requires precise thicknesing.

488617 488618 488619

A low budget thicknesing sander.



That does look useful, but a different tool than pictured in the OP, which appears to be a ~10,000 rpm grinder.

[Steve LeLaurin]

Thanks for the tips, guys. The clue word for me is "rotary" ... the sander I've been noticing is a "rotary sander" and not an orbital sander! Duh. Also discovered that Harbor Freight has a rotary collection, so I might try out one of their entry level ones to see if I like it as a tool to do some beginning smoothing on projects that need some heavier and faster sanding.