Sander choices

[Mihun09]

Festool makes a 3 1/2" RO sander as well. Might be good for you guys that like that severe tumblehome. Mind you, it is over $500. If you went with pneumatic you could likely get both large and smaller units for less money.

I think next year we will be going with air power. Either way you use electricity but air gives more options.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've seen those little 3" sanders and wondered how they'd work. Part of me worries that too small could be worse than too big. You'd be sanding such a small area that it would be hard to keep a level surface. I wish I could try a bunch of different ones out. I guess I could always get a small 3" pneumatic for tight areas. Would take a lot less air and wouldn't get used a whole lot so not too much dust generation.

It takes a lot of compressor to keep up with an ROS. My compressor cost about $1200. It's rated at 3hp and runs on 220 and I think it would be a little on the light side for running an ROS continuously. My dad has the standard $500 3hp big box special compressor (no way is it really 3hp) and I've used it with a 6" ROS and it doesn't even come close to keeping up. Maybe some sanders are more efficient than others, I don't know.

The numbers I saw, if they were accurate, said it was about 10 times the cost to run a pneumatic as opposed to electric. They were selling electric sanders however so if there were any numbers to fudge I'm sure they fudged them. But using a 3+ HP electric motor to run an air pump to run a sander is going to be a lot less efficient than directly running an electric sander. But there certainly are more options for less money if you've got the compressor.

Alan

 

[Momentum]

Alan,
You are right about it costing more to run the air powered tools, but I'd say marginally. For the amount that you are actually going to use the sander, I for one, wouldn't worry about it, but I'm not paying your bills. Ultimately it's your choice, but do have a look at it. Mihun has some good points about them being a little more versatile.
There is always the option of a small die grinder with a 3" sanding disc on it. You won't get the RO part of the sander, but it will fit into some tight places.

Go to HD and see how much it costs to rent a couple of their tools at the tool rental crib. Not sure if all HD stores have them, but it would be worth a try.

 

[Bearleealive]

A Rigid is what I have now and up until the other night I was very happy with it. The switch failed and it's become a very reluctant "random", more like a grinder. Pulled the top cover and gave the switch a few taps with a screwdriver to get it going last night but I doubt that will last for long. I just bought it this past June. Happy to hear yours has been working well as when I did some research (too late unfortunately) it sounds like the switch and loss of random are pretty common failures. The on board dust collection was better than other sanders I've tried.

The one thing I like about Rigid tools, is that they are guaranteed for life. Could you not just take it in for repair/replacement?

 

[Alan Gage]

They're only guaranteed for life if you jump through a few hoops and send in the correct information to register it. Otherwise it's 3 years, which isn't bad. But you can only return them to Home Depot under warranty for 90 days. After that they have to be taken or mailed to a Rigid certified repair center. I know myself pretty well and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to take the time to track down a repair center and then pay to ship them the sander. Not only that but I didn't keep my receipt and while I can go to the Home Depot that I bought it from and get them to look up the receipt that's an hour and a half away. More likely is that some evening I'll be bored and I'll find a place to look up and order parts online and repair it myself.

Alan

 

[Seeker]

If you plan on doing a lot of curves (like inside a canoe), go with 5". I prefer a square vs rectangular one for no particular reason. My dad was a professional cabinet maker. All his power tools are about 40-50 years old... the ones that lasted were made by Rockwell (no longer made, but designs were re-issued by DeWalt), Porter-Cable, Milwaukee, and Delta. He liked the early Mikita tools too, but that was maybe because they were the only makers of some types (I remember an electric hand planer). Stay away from Craftsman and Black & Decker.

 

[Mihun09]

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/makita-3-1-4-planer/944515

 

[Bearleealive]

They're only guaranteed for life if you jump through a few hoops and send in the correct information to register it. Otherwise it's 3 years, which isn't bad. But you can only return them to Home Depot under warranty for 90 days. After that they have to be taken or mailed to a Rigid certified repair center. I know myself pretty well and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to take the time to track down a repair center and then pay to ship them the sander. Not only that but I didn't keep my receipt and while I can go to the Home Depot that I bought it from and get them to look up the receipt that's an hour and a half away. More likely is that some evening I'll be bored and I'll find a place to look up and order parts online and repair it myself.

Alan

Yeah, I haven't had to yet try out this warranty, but if the situation is as you describe, it just would not be worth ones time to deal with the time and hassle required for dealing with warranty.

 

[Bearleealive]

Well, I was in Lowe's yesterday picking up a couple things for work, and happened by the air tool area. Ended up coming home with this. Once I give it a good go, I will report back. Not sure when that will be though. It certainly is small and light, and fits in the hand nicely. It is a 6", and I would have preferred 5".

http://www.lowes.ca/air-sanders-and-polishers/dewalt-dewalt-palm-sander_g2187428.html

 

[Alan Gage]

Today santa delivered a 5" Mirka Ceros and a boat load of sandpaper. Feels very light and while small it fits in my hand well. Extremely quiet. Never heard a sander so quiet. Not much more than a hum. I suppose some of that will be offset when it gets hooked up to my howler of a shop vac. A nice Fein turbo is somewhere in my future but not for a while. No vibration either. Only sanded a couple test pieces so far but it's a pleasure to use. Anything that can lessen the drudgery of sanding is a good thing in my book.

The paddle on top can either be used as on/off or as a throttle. It's also got a brake, which will be nice not having to wait for it to spin down before setting on the bench.

Hopefully in a week or so I'll be sanding down another hull to give it a real test.

Alan

 

[Canotrouge]

Cool Alan, Keep us posted on the results!!

 

[Alan Gage]

Been using the Mirka on and off for small projects the past couple weeks but today was the big day, time to sand the outside of another stripper. So far I've gone two rounds with 60 grit and I'm pretty sure I'm in love.

Very quiet. Even with the shop vac hooked up it's quieter than my 5" Rigid. I started using ear protection with that one when using it for long periods of time as it would leave a little ringing in my ears. The Mirka alone isn't much more than a hum. My shop vac is fairly loud but I added extra hose so I don't have to have it close to me and I can even put in on the opposite side of the canoe to block more noise.

Very little vibration and comfortable in the hand. I'd prefer a switch that could be locked "on" rather than the paddle for surfaces that aren't horizontal but it's not bad. I can comfortably use it with either hand and different hand positions as well. It takes very little effort to push down on the paddle so I can just use a thumb without tiring. We'll see how it does on the inside of the hull. The low profile and light weight is nice too. Doesn't tend to tip as much, easier to keep flat on edges.

But the best part of all is the dust collection. I thought my Rigid was pretty good as far as on board dust collection went but I still had the wear a respirator and there was still a haze in the shop when I'd get done. With the Mirka connected to the shop vac, which is a simple 1.25" connection, there is virtually no dust. I took off the respirator half way through the first round of sanding there was so little. I can be sensitive to things like sawdust, especially cedar it seems, but I didn't notice anything. No haze in the shop, no dust in my eyes, very little dust on the hull when wiped after sanding and no dust to blow off my clothes with compressed air before leaving the shop. I was a mess after sanding with the others I've used.

Seems plenty powerful too. I can't slow it down when I push hard and with it turned to high it seems to have no problem removing material in a hurry.

Not cheap but I'm very happy with it. As long as it has longevity it will be a winner.

Alan

 

[Canotrouge]

Alan, thank you for the up dates. This sounds like a great choice. And one more proof that you get what you pay for.

 

[Alan Gage]

Done sanding the inside of the current stripper. Very happy with the sander's performance. Dust collection wasn't as good on the inside since the sander can't be held as flat to the hull but it was still good enough that after the first couples passes I didn't need to wear a respirator. In areas where the sander was forced on edge lots of dust would fall to the bottom of the hull but it would get sucked up when the sander passed over that area. Weighing the canoe before and after sanding the interior I found I removed 2 pounds of saw dust, virtually none of which went into the air, into my lungs, or on my clothes.

The small size of the sander let me get a lot farther into the bow and stern than normal. Only having a momentary on/off switch with the paddle turned out to be only a small inconvenience and I was still able to use multiple hand positions for different areas of the hull. The dust collection hose, while a bit awkward, didn't interfere as much as I thought it would.

Still very happy.


20141227_002 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Alan

 

[Canotrouge]

Great review!! Wow, look at the difference in size!! I might reconsider this over a Festool. We'll see.
Thank you for taking the time!
Cheers