3” orbital sander?

[Rob Price]

Just bought my CBN wheels from Wood Turners Wonders, of course I’m looking at the rest of his stuff. Anyone use the random orbital sander? I have a cheap pneumatic harbor freight sander but the pads I have are not very soft and seem to leave more marks than they remove.

Anyone use his sander/pads?

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I have one. I bought from Ken at the AAW symposium in Atlanta almost 2 yrs ago. I brought it home hooked it up to some air turned it on it seemed to run ok then I put it back in the box and haven't actually used it yet. When I saw it at the symposium I thought it was something I could really use to save some time. So far I just haven't found a real need for it. I've got a sanding routine I'm comfortable with and haven't strayed from. I suppose I really should at least give it a chance someday.

[George Overpeck]

I use the Metabo 3" ROS. It's great, I use fewer grits because you can peel off a lot of wood with 120 and by the time I get to 240 I can't see any sanding marks on most woods.

It doesn't work on all angles of course, I double the pads to do bowl interiors but even then I still use the harbor freight some, also use the HF for trouble spots.

[John K Jordan]

Just bought my CBN wheels from Wood Turners Wonders, of course I’m looking at the rest of his stuff. Anyone use the random orbital sander? ...

Like many things in woodturning, much depends on what you like or expect to turn. For example, those who mostly turn large bowls and platters without much detail may get more use out of a particular tool than those who often turn smaller things or pieces with a more detail.

I use two pneumatic random orbital sanders, the 3" from Ken Rizza at Woodturners Wonders and a 2"/1" Grex I bought from Amazon. Which I use depends on what I'm turning. The 3" is great for larger flat or gently curved surfaces. I do use Ken's auxiliary soft pads to conform to the surface. (These could probably be used on your cheap sander.) The sander fits nicely in large bowls. Here it is in use by a student making a small shallow-dished squarish platter.

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I often use the 3" sander for the concave upper side of these little pieces but I should say here I rarely use coarser than 320 paper. Before sanding I remove all tool marks and irregularities with curved hand scrapers.

The 3" sander is not useful for smaller bowls, especially if relatively deep and with closed lip since is too large a diameter and won't fit nicely inside things. For those I mostly hand sand with a soft sanding block or use the Grex ROS with 2" or 1" disks. For example, the larger disks don't fit the tighter curve near the foot I like to use on the bottom of these small pieces so I use the 2" disks on the wings and hand-sand the curve approaching the foot. The detail inside the foot, of course, is all by hand. (BTW, I've applied naptha to part of this one to check for defects before final sanding and reversing to turn the top side.)

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The Grex is amazing for tight spots and places too curved for the 3". It comes with a 2" pad and I also got the extension rods and 1" pads so it will reach fairly deep to get the bottom of a form, you know, where the opening is large enough to see the bottom but you can't quite reach inside to sand by hand! Like other Grex products the quality is high. As with the 3" sander, I do most of the prep with scrapers and hand sanding and usually only use it with 320 or finer sandpaper at gentle speeds. (Both of these do work fine with coarse paper at higher speeds if that's your thing.) I learned about the Grex from turner Rudy Lopez.

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There are several things I really like like about the pneumatic sanders compared to an electric close quarters drill (I haven't used my Milwaukee for years):
- they are much lighter, smaller, and more maneuverable
- I think the random orbital action gives a better surface with more control and with less time and effort than sanding with rotating disk.
- the air can be reduced to run them at very low speeds, wonderful for gentle sanding with fine paper - in fact the one from Rizza has a limiting valve built in!
Down sides of these sanders:
- they can be loud at higher speeds
- air consumption at higher speeds is significant - a big compressor is helpful
- stretching an air line across the shop would be a pain - I plumbed air lines in the walls for an outlet at the lathe
- you must put a couple of drops of oil in the air fitting before each use

A friend recently tried both of my sanders and ordered the 3" from Rizza, perfect for his large bowls. I recommend getting the package: https://woodturnerswonders.com/colle...sample-package. If I had just one I'd get the Grex for the kinds of things I prefer to make.

JKJ