Stroke Sander for fine sanding

[Paul McCuish]

I bought an old Progress stroke sander and have grown to love it. However, I have been using an orbital sander after stroke sanding. I've read that the stroke sanded pieces can be stained or varnished without orbital or hand sanding. Can somebody give me some advice about using the correct sanding grits to do this? Do I need to change belts through the grits the way we do with hand sanding? What grits should I be using?

Thank you,
Paul

[Richard Coers]

I use 120 grit with a soft platten. Never directly went to finish. Random orbit before going to finish. Every board that goes through the thickness planer, then goes to the stroke sander. I use it to remove the planer marks, minor chip out, and minor snipe. Then it goes to the jointer and table saw to run the edges. Table top layups are the only thing that doesn't go to the stroke sander early. They saw the stroke sander after the glue up. I also love the stroke sander, it greatly under rated.

[Erik Loza]

I've sold a number of stroke sanders over the years (interestingly, to stainless steel sink fabricators rather than ww'ers). Always thought of them as a "rough" sander, needing more work after. If someone is using a stroke sander for finish work, really interested to hear their experiences.

Erik