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Orbital sander

Orbital sander (random orbital sanding machine) is one the hand sander machine that is widely used in the woodworking industry. This tool is a sander machine with a disc where the sandpaper is attached.  When it work, the disc will rotate randomly bring its sandpaper in the same action to sanding the wood surface. The random rotation make the sanding process can occur more equally and less sensitive to the grain direction of the wood surface. This makes the sanding can take place better and not leave swirl marks like on that uses vibrating pad sander. The orbital sander has quite high enough aggressiveness, if it is run with coarse sandpaper it possible to erode the part and form the shape.
The orbital sanding is the sanding machine that works very effectively to the sanding process on the raw wood to produce a smooth and flat surface quickly and easy. The orbital sanding machine now is available in a variety of brands and models, each of which has its own specifications. Some machines are equipped with valve to control the speed of rotation (rpm) of the disc. 
But however this machine is need to be used properly to produce optimum result.  

Here are tips to use the orbital sander.
  •  Avoid too strong pressure when running this machine.
The sanding process is occurring since of the rotation of the sandpaper attached to the disc. When the sandpaper rotates, the abrasive material is sanding the wood surface. Too high pressure will make the rotation of the disc become hard slow and. The high pressure also is high risk to damage the machine since the oblique disc.
  • Use the coarse sandpaper to the finer gradually.
The sanding process should always be done with proper rules. The rough wood surfaces must be sanded gradually using the coarse sandpaper to the finer. The grade sandpaper cannot jump too high from the previous one. The next sanding process should be done with no more than 60 grade number.
  • The orbital hand sander should be used for sanding the flat surface.
This tool should be used to sand the flat surface. We may use the orbital machine to sand the corner or edges, but it must be done carefully. The sanding on the  no flat surfaces is high risk to the over sanding. The sanding with on the no flat surface is also tending to make uneven pressure on the disc and result on the disc inclination.
  •  Do the proper movement.
The movement of equipment is one important factor to obtain the optimal sanding results. Put this tool on the wood surface and then turn the engine on to make the spinning disc and then move this machine to the cover the sanding on the overall surface. Feel the movement and directly the machine smoothly and constantly to sand bit by bit throughout the overall surface. Make adjustment to the rpm of the disc to the comfortable speed if possible. The higher rpm will make the machine sand faster and tend to sand more then it need faster stroke. While the slow rpm make an easier in controlling the movement, but the sanding is also hard and slow.
  •  Replace the sandpaper when it wore already.
The sandpaper work to sand the wood since it has abrasive material in it surface. When it is used then its abrasives materials wear off. The wear off sandpaper has no more ability to cut the wood. It will only rub and polish the wood to make the wood fibers lye down without being cut. The wood fibers will stand up in the stain application and make the blotchy  color. So avoid using the wear off sandpaper, make sure that we use the sandpaper that is still available to cutting the wood. 

1 comment for "Orbital sander"

  1. Thanks for the tips! It took me a while to get on the "proper movement" with the orbital sander but once you do, it really makes a lot of difference in the results and the effort needed to get things done.

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