74 Re: New toy
Description
This article is from the Woodworking FAQ Collection 5, by multiple authors.
74 Re: New toy
From: guido@blink.att.com (Guido Bertocci)
Date: 6 Oct 92 13:55:36 GMT
pauld@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (Paul Davis) writes:
>Alex Kilpatrick (fkilpatr@afit.af.mil) writes
>> I've heard of this type of "dual-mode" orbital sander, but I've never
>> actually seen one (or at least I was never aware of it). Can someone
>> refer me to a common brand sander that does this?
>I have an el-cheapo Black and Decker that can be switched between
>orbital and straight-line. It makes a terrible racket in either mode
>and actually sands better when it's not turned on. It cost about $30
>five years ago; the Porter Cable Speed Bloc I bought for $49 two
>years ago is infinitely better.
>I keep the B&D to loan to people I don't know well.
When I read this I couldn't help but laugh since my own oribital
sander has the same properties. Like many thousands of people, I made
the mistake of buying a Sears sander. In either orbital or
straight-line mode very little sanding occurs. After a while, I
became convinced that oribital sanders were totally worthless and just
did finish sanding by hand. It wasn't until several years later when
a professional boat builder was working on my boat after it had been
rammed, that I actually saw a sander that could sand. After
fiberglassing, he whipped out a Rockwell sander and the first thing I
noticed was it took a second or so to wind up to speed. Then when he
put it against my boat I could actually see dust come off. This was
almost a religious experience :-). My sander had this curious
property that when brand new it sounded like the bearings were about
to seize and vibrated my hand into numbness without sanding. The only
plus was that my sander almost never needed to have the dust bag
emptied. :-).
The Sears sander is so useless that I can't even get myself to loan it
out.
Now I use a Bosch random orbit sander that works as advertised.
Continue to:
My Books
