Sanders

[mysaladdays]

Hello,

Looking to buy a sander, but I'm not sure whether to get an orbital or random orbital sander. Does anyone have any experience of a random orbital one? I've read that it's a better all rounder than an orbital one, but more difficult to use, but I'm not sure if that's true?

I'm not wanting to sand heavy duty stuff like floors, etc, so I don't think I need a belt one, but there is a fair amount of cupboard and furniture sanding to do over the next year or so.

Any advice/recommendations welcome

I can't link it as the Screwfix website is down but I have a Titan Orbital sander from them, I have used it to strip paint off a chest, sand a brand new table top, even out imperfections in a plastered wall etc

I also have a detail sander for any nooks and crannys.

The best thing about the Titan is that it is about £40, gets great reviews and has dust extraction so I attach it to my ye olde Dyson (purple and lime that I have had since 1999) it makes a hell of a noise with the sander and the dyson on but it does the job.

The dust extraction helps the pads last longer. The smaller the orbit, the finer the finish however it removes paint/varnish at a slower rate. I tend to use a blade stripper like this for stripping flat surfaces and then sand off the remaining paint.

If you haven't used one of those before then start on a scrap piece or start somewhere that will be unseen , you need to hold it in your right hand and then your left hand puts a finer pressure on the blade part (keep your fingers back from the edge) so that you don't gouge out chunks of wood. Go slowly, get a feel for it and you will then use this to strip wallpaper etc.

I have actually stripped off a baby border from on top of wallpaper! and not damaged the wallpaper, but I have been using that stripper for years so am very used to it.

Thank you! £40 doesn't sound too bad and thanks for the tip about the stripper!

Screwfix website is back up, this is the sander and you can look at the reviews. So this is the sander.

We were lucky that our last house was a stepping stone house and I was stripping wallpaper and I knew the walls needed replastering so I mastered the stripper there, I did gouge the walls loads because I was going fast. But you can learn to control it really well.

When stripping paint, come at it from different directions with the stripper knife. It helps you not gouge as you may try to dig the knife in deeper to get under the edge. And good luck.

Thank you!