Small sanders

[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).



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-...ctric-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 ...



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) ...





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 ...



The end of the Mirka hose fits the CT26E perfectly.




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.