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Anonymous09/24/25, 23:16No.2946817Orbital sanders
>I've made a table and kinda fucked up the finish. It's built into a nook and in active use, so I'm trying to fix it without completely nuking the place.
>Tried doing it by hand, but the stuff clogs up a p120 paper within seconds.
>Thinking of buying an orbital sander and blow a pack of p120 and a pack of p240 on this to fix it, but I have no experience with sanding power tools.
What to watch out for, what are the general guidelines when buying/using this stuff?
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Anon09/25/25, 00:15No.2946832
RO sander is a critical tool if you're doing anything beyond rough framing. In a perfect world you want to cut or scrape your way to exactly what you need, but at the end of the day the sander goes brrrrrrr.The RO sander is almost idiot proof. Sometimes the velcro can drop the paper and I'll accidentally sand away the velcro before I notice. Other than that, you start with a low grit to cut away more material. Then you work your way up to eliminate swirls. I don't go under 80, that's belt sander tear shit up territory. 120 and 240 give good finishes. Past 320 can impair stain absorption. You're getting into paint polishing and blade sharpening grits in the high hundreds and 1000s.Think about what you're doing when you're sanding. 60 grit belt sander is ripping away whiskers of wood like shredded wheat. A hand plane carves away shavings. RO is always cutting circles or spirals into dust or fine powder. Proper technique is to use a finish sander to final sand with the grain, especially when you build something from scratch or need perfect stain and finish. Most jobs and people will never know the difference, RO is plenty.
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Anon09/25/25, 11:01No.2946911
Buy a stick-on type instead of the velcro type. You can buy giant rolls of circular stick-on pads at the local auto paint shop for a fraction of the cost of the velcro ones (which are extremely overpriced).
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Anon09/25/25, 17:46No.2946987
get a finish sander so you can get into the corners, RO is nice for sanding big things, they aren't nice for sanding things with other things around them
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Anon09/30/25, 22:23No.2948040
What you need is Festool Rotex for them agressive grind (forced rotation) and Mirka Deros for finishing sander. I know, i have em all, all pad sizes. But automotive mostly.
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Anon10/09/25, 19:21No.2949860
Whatever you do, don't get a cordless one because they run down batteries something fierce.
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Anon10/15/25, 22:27No.2951050
I'm currently using a 220V orbital sander for most of my wet works on a car. Is it against sharia law? Should I transition to a 12V version or pneumatic one?
Standing in a pool with the thing plugged in grid sounds retarded. But i can't stand epoxy dust either.
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Anon10/15/25, 22:51No.2951053
I refinished a coffee table last year. Hand sanding was not going to cut it. Too much time and not consistent enough results. This worked well, and takes 1/4 sheet of sandpaper (fold in half twice and cut on the folds) so it has to be the most economical. I stabbed the dust suction vent holes with a pencil.
