For interior decorating preparation (keying gloss paintwork, removing loose paint, rubbing down emulsion-painted walls, etc.), what type of electric sander is best?
Should I consider orbital or random orbital? Palm size, one-third sheet or half sheet? Or a circular abrasive sheet?
I would hope to find something suitable that did not vibrate too much, and which would let the dust be sucked up a vacuum cleaner attachment. Is it an advantage to have a sander with variable speed?
I have several orbital sanders (1x palm, 1x 1/3 sheet, 1x detail), a belt sander (4") and a (recently purchased) random orbit 125mm disc sander.
The first 3 are relatively useless. Well, maybe useless is the wrong term - they're very gentle.
The belt sander is superb. It just removes large amounts of material very quickly. But my current favourite is the random orbit 400W tool. It combines the power of the belt sander with the ease of use and control of the orbital sanders. Very nice indeed.
A random orbital Bosch PEX400 or thereabouts. Something with variable speed, dust extraction disks/filter box and with a bit of price behind it ie. the cheap sanders are rubbish. ;-)
Mark S.
I have the above Bosch and agree its the mutts nutts.
I'm delighted with my cheap sander! I use it all the time and the small size makes it easy for all sorts of awkward places and it is not tiring to use. I also have a belt sander for the occasions when I need some real power. They do different jobs and make a good combination.
Whereas I've two Ferm ones and the Bosch and the Ferm's get left out of choice. All noise and no results.
Only drawback with the Bosch is the velcro on the baseplate doesn't last forever especially when you use it a lot.
Mark S.
Thank you for all the comments. I shall start by trying a Bosch PEX400.
Regards, Jan.
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