Best all-round sander

[antgel]

Hi all,

What's the best sander _type_ for finishing off walls after activities such as tile removal and after filling holes in plasterboard? I have a "mouse" type one which I've used on little jobs before, but now think I need something a little more substantial. I've seen belt (scary looking things), random orbital, and 1/3 or 1/2 sheet things. I assume that detail sanders are too small for this type of work.

Antony

[Andy Dingley]

Cork block and a few rolls of good quality sandpaper in various grades.

There are few tasks where a powered sander is better than hand sanding, and none where these cheap "rodent" sanders are better.

[Kaiser]

The best all round and value for money sander in my opinion is the Bosch PEX

400 random orbit sander. It can cope with most situations such as fast stock removal and fine finishing.

Belt sanders are ok for fast stock removal but they are no good for fine finishing. Orbital sheet sanders are good at finishing but no good for fast stock removal.

[David Lang]

Hi

Kaiser wrote;

I'd agree that random orbit sanders are brilliant all round machines, with

40 grit they act like a belt sander and with 240 grit they do a great finishing job. Axminster have one on offer at the moment

[Andy Dingley]

(the Bosch PEX 400 is pretty good)

[David Lang]

Hi Andy

Not denying the Bosch probably is good, but what's up with Axminster? They are IMO a top quality company and wouldn't offer rubbish with their name on it. Evidence or opinion?

Dave

[Grunff]

Ooh, miss, mememe!

I also like Axminster a lot; they have a superb product range, and a very good level of customer service. However, their White range is of variable quality.

Some of the White range stuff is pretty well made, and offers good value for money. Other products in the range (particularly some of the drills, jigsaws and sanders) are not very well made, with the overall quality and feel no different from Ferm or PP.

[Andy Dingley]

Well that's what I thought until I bought a couple. I've been very disappointed.

Their White machinery was fine, even their yellow Perform stuff (withion its capabilities) but the handheld Whites are of about the same quality as Ferm.

[Mark S.]

I'm on my second PEX400 and can't fault it, first one "broke" due to me not thinking straight... ;-)

Mark S.

[John Stumbles]

So how do random orbital ones work that's different from orbital?

And do they have a true randomness generator or is it a cryptologically insecure pseudo-random generator? ;-)

[Andy Hall]

I'm not sure if they all work this way, but my Metabo one has eccentric and concentric mechanisms. The effect is that the pad rotates relatively slowly but makes rotations with a selectable 3mm or

6mm diameter relative to the body of the tool at a much higher rate - or it can be switched to non-random.

It runs 3DES, so not that secure.

[Rod]

Andy Hall wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Spirograph...