Orbital sander

[wallyb10]

I'm currently shopping for an orbital sander. Practically all the ones carried by Lowe's, Home Depot etc. are the 5" size, yet I get the impression from the list that 6" is preferred. Other than the obvious difference in coverage, are there any reasons that I should try to find a 6"?

[Donn]

Can't help with the sander question, but I wanted to say hey...I used to live right up the road from you, in Bainbridge.

[Memphis Mike]

What ever you do, if your going to
sand a boat with it, buy an extra
disk kit. You'll save yourself a
trip back to the Depot in the middle
of sanding. ;)

BTW, my preferance is the DeWalt 5 inch.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Rayobi love mine

[jason stumpf]

wally,
i've been using random orbit sanders for alot of years now, and that was only when someone forced me to give up my old porter-cable half-sheet sander. anyway, i've had good luck with the porter-cable sanders. burned out a few, and i'm always amazed that they didn't burn out way before they did. i use a 5" with dust collection for most work, but i've also got the 6". i actually like the 5" machine better. the motor runs faster on the small one, and to me it feels easier to control. and get the velcro-- even if you don't care about changing grits, the adhesive ones get glue built up on the pad that is a real pain in the butt.
jason

[garland reese]

Hey Wally,
You may find that the smaller disks are more readily available than the bigger ones, and that might be more convenient. The Porter Cable ROS seems to be a good deal to me. It should hold up well, unless you plan on lots of hard use.

I see you are in Solon. I've been there twice for X-ray Service school at RSTI. I see you like bluegrass............last time I was there, I went by some little acoustic shop in Cleveland (over by some university). They build banjos in-house there and do a good bit of guitar repair......very cool little place, nice folks. They also have a good selection of folk and old-time music. I had them look over a mandolin my wife had bought me.
What kind of boat are you a buildin'? The size of your project might help you determine which sander to get, in addition to the aforementioned convenience thing.

[JimConlin]

Whether to get the 5" or 6" tool depends on what kind of work you do. Sometimes you need the compactness of the 5" size, as when sanding the inside of a strip canoe. For big flat surfaces, the 6" tool will produce better resultts ane the discs will last longer. Buy the discs from someone like jamestown or Klingspor. Local retail outfits sell very poor product at outrageous prices. I have both the Porter-cable 7335 and 7336 models. They'll outlive me.

[john welsford]

Originally posted by wallyb10:
I'm currently shopping for an orbital sander. Practically all the ones carried by Lowe's, Home Depot etc. are the 5" size, yet I get the impression from the list that 6" is preferred. Other than the obvious difference in coverage, are there any reasons that I should try to find a 6"?Go down to your local panelbeater, I think you call them "body shops" in your part of the world ( if you ask for a body shop here you'd likely get a funeral director or a brothel, ones legal, ones not, not sure which) and see what they use. That will tell you several useful things, they will only use machines that work really well, that they can get serviced locally, that have a good local supplier of abrasive papers and that are a good buy .

Good Luck. ( I have two Makitas and a DeWalt, have thrown out several Black and Deckers adn lust after a Fein 600watt 180mm ( about 7 1/4in) disk random orbital which costs close to $400 US and is used by all the Body Shop guys ( the car ones not the other kind) around here.

JohnW

[wolfietuk]

I have burned out several of the dewalt 5", nice machines while they last. Currently I have a porter cable 5" with speed control. ( sorry I cant remember the modle #). It has lasted for longer than the dewalts and is still going strong. I also have a bigger porter cable (the one that looks like an angle grinder) with a 6" pad (it origionally came with a 5") a little harder to control, but great for smoothing down googe on big surfaces.

Rick

[Scott Rosen]

I have an 8 year-old Bosch 5". It's a great machine. I hook a vaccuum to the dust port for practically dust-free sanding. I've never felt the need for a larger machine.

[Matt Middleton]

I've taken off several coats of paint from my boat this summer with my 5" DeWalt variable speed, hooked to a small Shop Vac. I'm happy with the setup- velcro pads are easy to change and readily available. I hardly ever use it without the vac, and when I do, it's only for a minute until the dust generated drives me to overcome my laziness and go drag the vac out. But I digress.

I use the sander on the low speed, and it has held up very well to the everyday use/abuse. It wouldn't to a good job of fairing a surface, but I don't imagine that going to a 1" diameter larger disk will help all that much.

Good Luck!

[Bob Perkins]

I have a Porter Cable 5" ROS. I have beat the crap out of it and it is still going strong.

I have many hours of sanding out a strip canoe and seasons of sanding bottom paint off my plastic boat (23' Ranger). It is a good choice.

[Matt Middleton]

I should have added that the only reason that I went with DeWalt over Porter Cable is that Home Despot had all the parts in stock to hook up the DW to a vacuum, but not for the PC. I didn't want to wait to special order the part (then, or when I broke it and needed a replacement later. ;) )

[John of Phoenix]

I love Porter Cable tools. Durable as dirt and an especially nice feature on their equipment is that the dust collection system is inter-changable between all their tools. It works on routers, pad sanders, orbital sanders, belt sanders, you name it. I don't think you'll find that in any other full line tool manufacturer.

I blew out the very last B&D tool I'll ever own in less that four hours of use.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Popular woodworking just did a review...and I bought it because I need one too...
for serious woodworkers they recommended the makita BO6030 Porter Cable 333 Bosch 1295D
and for the serious serious... Makita B06040 and the Fein MSF 636-1
I will probably buy one of the first three since the last two are expensive.. I still have the big Makita half sheet sander and a dewalt palm sander, and the Porter cable profile sander (which is great for curved brightwork built in to the boat or smallllll stuff)
Wooden Boats... never too many sanders I say ;)

[DragonFly]

I've been using a 5in portor cable air powered sander with six inch pads. Works great. The advantage with the six inch disc on the 5inch backing is that i can get an easier entry into concave (or is it convex) curves. Helps to reduce infamous sander gouge. Another advantage I like with the air powered sander is being able to adjust the air flow so if I push too much it will stop turning with no harm done to the wood or the tool. I'm bad about putting too much pressure on a sander and thus making that terrible half swirllie, hardly ever with a properly tuned air sander.

And I can change out the 5in backing for any size I want, from a couple inches to six or more if I make my own.

Happy sanding!

[Donn]

I want to bring this thread back to life, because I'm shopping for a RO sander, and have more questions. In 5" RO's, Coastal Tool carries both palm sanders and right angle sanders. For use in both boat and house restoration, what are the relative benefits of each?

This may be more of a philosophical question, but is the $400 Fein 6" really almost 4 times better than this Porter-Cable Bonus Kit?

PC 6" Deal (http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7424.htm?L+coastest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036282552)

I'm a fan of Fein, because of the MultiMaster...in 6 months, it's more than paid for itself. I use it so often that I've given it (and it's accessories) it's own orange bucket, but I don't want to try to sand my boats with it, and I'm not sure that I'll get as much use out of a RO sander (as I do with the MM)...enough to justify the high price of the Fein.

[Concordia..41]

Well, my lust for the Fein 6" is already on record - just comparing the two pages side by side:

http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/fein/fe6ro.htm?L+coas test+xyzm3654ffc1fec1+1036304601 (http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/fein/fe6ro.htm?L+coastest+xyzm3654ffc1fec1+1036304601)

<a href="http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7424.htm?L+coastest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036282552" target="_blank">
http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7424.ht m?L+coastest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036282552 (http://http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7424.htm?L+coastest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036282552</a>)[/URL]

the Fein's weight at 3.7 lbs to the PC's 5.75 is a big deal to someone like me who'll be working off scaffolding doing 82' linear feet of topsides. You'll be doing most of your work at waist level so while not as important, two lbs is two lbs. I also imagine there'll be some duck walking and various and assorted yoga-like moves in your sanding future.

Someone can chime in with what good and bad about speed. Fein's = 7500 rpm / PC's = 2500 to 6000.

Also, the PC with the dust collection system (WHICH YOU WANT - CAN'T GET THIS ON SWMBO'S CAR, ALL OVER YOU, TRACKED INTO THE HOUSE, ETC.) is $149

http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7366.htm?L+co astest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036291471 (http://www.coastaltool.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/a/port/pr7366.htm?L+coastest+qhpg1094ff644864+1036291471)

If you think you love your Multimaster now, just wait til you start sanding around those little frames. The thing's a dream :D :D

Enjoy!

[ 11-02-2002, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: Concordia..41 ]

[MuddyFeet]

I couldn't bring myself to justify the Fein with just two wooden boats, both in decent shape. But everyone has a different budget. In my experience, the higher rpm is worth a lot -- I used a Fein when helping a friend, and you really notice the difference.

[Scott Rosen]

Donn,

I passed on the Fein because it's not variable speed and it's heavy. When you're working on a boat, you do a fair amount of work holding the sander above shoulder level. Try working on the cabin overheads with a heavy machine and you'll see what I mean.

I favor variable speed. Much boat sanding is finish sanding of paint and varnish. Some paints will clog the disks at high speed if the paints aren't fully cured. Other times you don't want agressive sanding, so you use a slow speed. If I were only painting bottoms, or only working on very hard finishes, like auto finishes, I could see using a high speed-only machine.

[DutchRub]

I have had poor performance from 2 porter cable 333 ros. Burned out the bearings in two of them-and was told by a tool seller that porter cables are known for this problem- I used to beleive that pC was a quality tool-but with the bearing problems and the poor performance of the attached dust collector on this tool ( keeps blowing off the machine when in use ) they will not be my first choice when my current pc bites it ( which probably wont be long) -by the way I take care of my tools up-keep them blown out between uses and clean and dont abuse them-I need em to make my living.

[JimConlin]

Some PC tools are very good and some are decidedly not. I very much like my 733x right-angle RO sanders, 690 router 7310 laminate trimmers and speedblock sanders.. The inline detail sander and the gray plastic quarter-sheet sander I would not buy again.
The dust-collecting variant of the 733x sander works very well.

[Donn]

Well...I'm leaning toward the PC 97366 variable speed, with dust collection, and the Fein Turbo 2 vac. Scott's comments on variable speed forced me to look at the ways I use the Multimaster, and I vary the speed alot, even in sanding. I just can't bring myself to spend $550 for the 8" variable speed Fein. Then when you consider the higher cost replacement items like pads and discs, the Fein get's even more expensive. When I do Loon's hull and decks, and large inside the house jobs, I may wish for the extra coverage of the 8", but if so, there's no rule against having more than one RO sander...is there?

[Bruce Hooke]

I have a 5" Bosch variable speed, random orbit sander and I have been very happy with it.

That said, for large areas that will be painted, such as the topsides on a decent size boat, I would get an 8 or 9" sander/polisher and get a foam backing pad (available from Jamestown Distributors) that takes adhesive discs. These are the units that look like a big angle grinder but run quite a bit slower and in my experience (working in a boatyard one summer) they can't be beat when you are dealing with large surfaces. However, the whole setup will set you back at least $200 and size I just have small boats at this point I have never felt that it was worth getting one for myself...