Shopsmith Forums

Hi All,

Looking for sage advice from this group of experienced woodworkers.... I was thinking of getting a palm sander but haven't started looking yet. Do you have a recommendation, a favorite one or a model I should specifically stay away from? Thanks - Nick

First some questions.
1/4 sheet or RO?
Corded or battery?
I recently bought the Bosch 1/4 sheet corded because I have their 5"/6" RO combo and really like it.
The 1/4 sheet is handy for what it does. Good or great? That I'm not certain.
Ridgid has a battery operated one (I have the Gen 5x set) and had given it a thought but seems to have more bad reviews than good.
Not sure if any of that is a help,

Be well,
Ben

I was thinking corded RO.

I have had the Bosch ROS20VSC for a couple years now, and it has handled every thing I throw at it with ease, for under $60 bucks you can't go wrong, not to mention the little dust collector canister thing really works, you have the option to hook it to a vac, but so far haven't felt the need to do so, the little dust canister seems to work good enough as good as a vac on other sanders, variable speed ROS sander, made a little wood tool to align the disks quickly (5 inch 8 hole disks) this is a corded sander.

pic is ROS10, but they look identical, single speed is $10 cheaper, but the variable is worth the extra ten bucks

I have a couple of cheap ones. I like them for jobs like plaster or rough sanding on wood jobs. I don't use them on furniture quality jobs because they are orbital so they leave marks across the grain of high grade wood. You don't want orbital marks on a chest of drawers or a dining room table. If you are making a picnic table to sit outdoors, they work just fine and the sanding marks aren't a problem.

garys wrote:I have a couple of cheap ones. I like them for jobs like plaster or rough sanding on wood jobs. I don't use them on furniture quality jobs because they are orbital so they leave marks across the grain of high grade wood. You don't want orbital marks on a chest of drawers or a dining room table. If you are making a picnic table to sit outdoors, they work just fine and the sanding marks aren't a problem.

I use them up to my finial grit, then that one is done by hand with the grain. No swirl marks.