85 Porter Cable Random orbit sander. Freud biscuit joiner.
Description
This article is from the Woodworking FAQ Collection 5, by multiple authors.
85 Porter Cable Random orbit sander. Freud biscuit joiner.
From: leo@tandem.com (Leo Hejza)
Date: 13 Aug 90 21:21:51 GMT
This past week I purchased some new tools to help in a cabinet job I
was doing.
I had built some face frames out of doweled oak, and they had some
nasty mismatches at the joints. No problem, I thought I'll get a belt
sander and smooth them up. Well, I didn't get a belt sander. For a
number of reasons I purchased a Porter Cabel random orbit sander. This
this is really nice.
As far as the downs of it are. The face frames were 2 inches wide. The
sander is very hard to use on such a narrow strip without rounding
over the edge of the frame. (At least for a rookie like me.)
In fact, I ruined one of the frames. So I thought, this time I'll sand
the oak before I ripped it. Here is where the sander really
shined. The oak I purchace is surfaced two sides, one edge is ripped,
and the other still has the sawmarks from when the wood is cut from
the log. (But for 2$ a board foot ...) Any way, the planed surfaces
still have some planer ripple on them. So I put an 80 grit dics on the
sander and started. This machine really removes stock. The surface was
smooth in minutes, and there were NO scratches that I could
determine. I then jumped to a 120 grit pad and went over the boards
again. The surface started to get that nice reflected shine to it as I
went along. I would guess this sander works about 2 or 3 times faster
than an orbital to get the same result. And again, no apparent
scratches from the abrasive.
The only complaints I have had are the it does not seem to be good for
narrow work, and the body of the tool is slightly too large, (for my
hands), if you have to use it for a long time. It is slightly noisy
also.
On the up side, Its fast, light, and if you only have one sander in
your shop I'd recomment this one.
I also picked up a Freud biscuit jointer, to use to remake the face
frames I screwed up. The second set of frames, and a set of edge
banded tops i made, came out beautifully.
The up side to this tool is speed, but not at the expense of
inaccurate results. It has a plastic carring case, wrenches for blade
changing, oil for the system, a small supply of biscuits, and
instructions included in the price.
I set it up according to the instructions for size #0 biscuits. Cut
the face frames and biscuit joined them in about a third the time
dowelling took me the first time. The frames fit beautifully. I also
put 2" edgebands around some oak plywood for some cabinet tops. For
this i used #20 biscuits. They fit beautifully also. You set the
machine for one size biscuit and all the others are in adjustment
automatically.
Up side: The tool is light, fast, and accurate.
Down side: The body of the tool is again somewhat large for my hands,
and this makes the switch somewhat awkward to turn on. (Off is no
problem however.) The tool is noisy, and the biscuit size control is
very difficult to switch from size to size. It is a very small knob in
an awkward place. (But I guess you don't change that often.) The
other down is like any biscuit jointer you have to be reasonably
accurate about adjusting the fence. But when you put the tool in the
case you have to move the fence to its highest position before it will
fit the case.
Despite it all, I'm not giving up either of these tools. They have a
permanent place in my workshop.
Side note to San Jose readers. I bought both of these from Nu Way Tool
on ElCamino. Their prices are very close to the ones in the Tools on
sale catalog.
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