Old sander broke. What do I want?

[Larry Blanchard]

Can you buy a Milwauke for < $100?

[Ed Edelenbos]

There's a 5" one that comes in between $70 and $80. There's a Bosch that comes in at around $60.

Ed

[Rick Frazier]

You must be a young whippersnapper... All round (random) orbitals used regular paper discs held on with a non-setting adhesive that came in a tube shaped much like a smallish toothpaste tube. Strangely enough it was known as sanding disc adhesive, and available at any place that sold the discs, sanders (air powered) or pads. You spread the adhesive on the pad, waited for it to dry to medium tack and pressed on the paper. The adhesive would last through several paper changes mostly depending on how long between changes. Working as a bodyman and painter in an automotive body shop, I probably went through a few thousand discs before I left the industry. During normal days, you might make it a couple of days before having to clean off the adhesive and reapply it, but it was certain to change on Monday morning. The pads were a sort of canvas like material before the advent of PSA type discs. Still have one around here somewhere... Back in the day, the popular brand was Devilbiss (like for spray guns) and then Rodac took over for a while. [sigh] So much for the trip down memory lane.

If you really want to experience it like we "usta do", get some spray contact cement like 3M 77, spray a standard PSA pad with some, spread it out with your finger and wait for it to tack up, then press on the paper. Trim around the edge to make it round if you don't have any disc shaped (non PSA, non H&Loop) around and you're off to the races, so to speak. How to get it off? Well, if you do it soon enough, it will pull off just like PSA. If not, you just whip out the torch, fire it up and briefly heat the surface of the paper (it will typically turn brown, or black if you over do it. Fairly quickly, while the adhesive is still warm, pull off the old paper and apply new. You can keep this on for quite a while before you need to replace the adhesive...

Oh, you ask, does it work with PSA also? Yep, you betcha. Got some old PSA paper that just doesn't want to stay on? A quick spray, spread and wait cycle and the paper will stick until you want it off!

However, to answer the original poster's question, which sander to buy is dependent on how long you want it to last. Which pad is how much time you want to invest in changing discs. With H&L, you can whip through the grits pretty fast, and re-use them without major problems. With PSA, you either need a separate pad (and/or sander) for each grit you use, or you need some place to stick the discs to when you change grits. Not all that convenient, and the pressure sensitive glue on the back of the discs gets contaminated with sawdust and the like, so they don't work for more than a change or two. Personally, I use H&L with a 5" pad for 60 through 150 grits, and have dedicated units with PSA pads for 180, 220, 320 and 400 grit. As I'm doing turning, I don't need random action heads and just use Milwaukee angle drills as the units, and built up sponge padded heads with naugahide surfaces for the PSA pads. Works quite well.

For flat surfaces, an ancient random orbit air sander with (now) 5" pad, down from the 6" I used in the bodyshop days, and all is well.

--Rick

[Russ Stanton]

[Ed Edelenbos]

Probably because the orig. question (see below) was for a random orbital. Those quarter sheet sanders are orbital, and they can leave tiny swirls on the work if you're not careful. Random orbit sanders can (and tend to) give a better result, for me. YMMV.

Ed

[Russ Stanton]

[Robatoy]

I have one of these:

1297DK Bosch. Just love it.

[lenhow]

Getting here late on this one but my 2 cents.....

Have used over the past 8 years Porter Cables, Bosch, Dewalt, (and seen them all die), now I have a Milwaukee. They were all fine when new, but not one (with the possible exception of the Dewalt) more than a year or so before developing problems. The Milwaukee is very nice! Better, in my opinion, than any of the others were when new. For about $80 it's where you should start looking. No doubt you can get a better sander (Festool ?) but for lots more $$$$. Oh, and Milwaukee's tools have a 5 years warranty.

Lenny

[Greg Guarino]

I am considering a Milwaukee, althought the PC I saw has more power, if I remember correctly. I'm getting the impression that a sander has an inherently violent mode of operation and can't be expected to last forever. With any luck what might last you a year will last me ten.

Thanks again to all for more advice than I could have dreamt of. I even read with interest the comments on things that that are over my budget, above my volume of use and beyond my skill level. I probably won't be buying that large compressor for awhile though.

Greg Guarino