RO Sander for finishing body?

[John Parchem]

I also use an orbital sander. During prep for finish and at most stages of finish. One really ends up with a level surface with no real scratches. My finish work would suffer if I did not have it.

[Daniel P]

I have a Ridgid 5" orbital and use a vacuum with it for other projects - should work ok.

Are you going up through 320 grit or higher on bare wood?

[John Parchem]

I use 220 on bare wood. 400 - 500 once I have finish on; usually very light sanding. I have some micro-mesh disks that I take up to their 8000 on the final finish.

[ken cierp]

As long as the Rigid has a speed of 12,000 (not sure why they have variable speed controls) I always run them as fast as possible to avoid scratches. Based on the finishing schedules I got from McFadden now Seagraves 280g and Behlens now Mohawk too I sand bare wood to 320g pretty good sources, I believe I published those schedules in the finishing section.

[mike-p]

ok, so my arms are aching and my hands are sore, I want one of these. What do I look for, I'm in the uk? How about this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Metabo-FSX-20 ... 2a360769b8

[ken cierp]

??? not familiar -- Has to be vibration free and about 12000 orbits per second or you'll not be satisfied with the results. Oh and I should mention that we had a couple of Ryobi's that worked well until they hit the floor "once" -- after that they were just paper weights. So, again, most often you get what you pay for.