What do you think about palm sanders?
#21
(01-03-2019, 11:31 AM)rschissler Wrote: What do you think about palm sanders?

Except for heavy removal where I'll use a belt sander, any other sanding I've done by hand with sanding blocks or pads.  I've always felt I had the best control and it's easy to do.  Lately I've wondered about the benefits of a palm sander, and how it might work better getting into corners and harder to reach areas.  Any thoughts on them, like how good they are, faster sanding or not?

We  use a PC330 in fact I have 4 . first one I bought about 25 years ago still works great. we belt sand first then finish sand. I would not call it a palm sander though, it runs very very smooth, you can set it on a table and guide it around by the cord that's how smooth. works great on raised panel edges.. also use it with 320 grit to sand after first coat of finish. PC330 is the very best finish sander out there. try one
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#22
Like many others, I use an ROS almost exclusively.  I know that different brands can be more aggressive or leave a smoother finish than others, but the bottom line is I don't use my belt sander or my palm sander for surface sanding.  When boards come out of my lunch box planer, I go right to the ROS, starting with 120 grit.  I generally stop at 180, depending on the wood and the application.  Sometimes I get boards from a friend that he has run through his big planer and it has a rougher surface.  I might start out with 80 or 100 grit for those, but the ROS still makes short work of it.

I sometimes use my palm sander to sand contours, because it's easier to control on edges than the ROS, but other than that, it generally stays in it's case, under the bench.
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#23
ROS, then a quick hand sand with the grain - just a couple of passes.

I've got a palm sander somewhere, but I haven't touched it in years.
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#24
Have a porter cable on the shelf, good place fot it.
Yes

Ed
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#25
Same here. PC330. Great sander, but only use it for curved, rounded, dished surfaces.
Steve

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#26
Got a Makita palm sander bought in the late '80s. It resides on a shelf if it still resides at all with me. I like my DeWalt ROS w/hook and loop. I try to do almost all sanding before assemble, particularly where the assembly might result in an almost inaccessible corner.
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#27
If I still have a palm sander, it's a Makita and it predates the general availability of the ROS. (25? 30? years). And it hasn't been used in that long.

I'm surprised at the number of people that start with a belt sander. I'd be worried about taking too much off.
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#28
Haven't used a belt sander for anything but smoothing out poor rough framing in 25 years.....

Ed
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#29
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(01-05-2019, 01:12 AM)Stwood_ Wrote: Same here. PC330. Great sander, but only use it for curved, rounded, dished surfaces.

The trick to ANY of them is to move the sander at one inch per second.  Otherwise there's a high risk of swirls.  The faster the sander is moved over the surface, the worse the swirlingl  Let the sander do the work.

As to getting into little corners and tight areas, none of the sanders are really good at that except maybe the Fein multi tool with that little triangular sanding pad and that's marginally useful.

I like the PC 330s also but they aren't quite up to the ROS on large flat areas.  I have five PC330s.  Check out FWW #60 for a review of the palm sanders.

   
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#30
(01-08-2019, 12:16 AM)Bob Vaughan Wrote: As to getting into little corners and tight areas, none of the sanders are really good at that except maybe the Fein multi tool with that little triangular sanding pad and that's marginally useful.

I've wondered about those Fein sanding attachments too, like does anybody ever really use them except on a rare exception?  I received a bunch of those sanding attachments when I got my Fein oscillating tool, and have never used them once.
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