76a VIDEO UNDERSTANDING RANDOM ORBIT SANDERS*

In this video I want to explain

My recommendations for a sander for deck preparation. I've got four sanders here

Three of them. I do not recommend and one type I do recommend

This is a random a six inch angle grinder style Random orbit sander this kind of tool different manufacturers make different versions of it, but this kind of tool is

The best Handheld sander for deck sanding if you're sanding a large flat area

It probably makes sense for you to rent a walk-behind floor sander of the sort that would be used to

Refinish hardwood floors and the kind to use for decks is what they call a square buff

Sander it just kind of jiggles and it sands that way That's the walk-behind kind for the big area if you've got a big deck, and it's nice and flat

But no matter what size your deck you're still going to need something that's handheld in order to get into

Corners and things and in fact you can use this sander for sanding

Wide open areas of decks too if you'd rather not rent the floor sander

Let me just break down the name of this so you understand it where it's a six inch center

Which means that the diameter of the pad is six inches It's I call it an angle grinder style because the shape of the motor is

Reminiscent of an angle grinder, which is a Metal working tool that spins an abrasive disc for shaping metal

so It's fairly powerful as random orbit sanders go and I'm going to explain what I mean by that in a minute

But this is really the style you want some kind of angle grinder style six inch

And it's random orbit which means something very specific The movement of the pad when you're actually sanding with it

Has has two shapes to it. I mean there's just a plain spinning

Which is what's happening now, but there's also something called orbiting so it kind of it goes around this way

While it spins and the combination of those two movements yields much smoother results if this just spun

Then there would be circular swirls all over your deck and it would look terrible

So that's what an angle grinder would do it just spins. It doesn't orbit

But this spins and orbits and when the two movements are put together

You get quite smooth results. There's going to be a few little swirl marks, but it doesn't really matter on a deck

It's not a fine enough surface that it really matters. So I've had this particular tool for a long time

More than 25 years. It's seen a lot of use. I've lent it out I've replaced the pad on it and it just keeps on going. It's it's a great tool

now More common than this is what's called the five inch Random orbit sander. It's a kind of a palm sander in a way and and this is one here

These are great tools as far as they go, but they just don't have the horsepower of the six inch

Might not seem like much I mean the disc is a little bit smaller in size It spins and it also orbits like this, too

It orbits less though The the radius of the orbit is less than this and that's one of the reasons why

The six inch is more aggressive than the five inch Also, the size of the motor is very different. This this has a larger more powerful motor. So

All things taken together the six inch random orbit sander will will

Produce about twice as much work cover about twice as much ground as the five inch

So these five inches their models are all over the place. They're easy to find and that's very tempting because

They're there to be used but You'll get your work done about twice as fast with the six inch. So I recommend you get your hands on one of those

Makes a big difference This sander it's a quarter sheet finishing sander

Do not try to use this way way way too slow much slower than the five inch

It's a great tool for sanding between coats and final sanding on on fine woodworking projects, but not for a deck

Now this is a belt sander plenty of power But it's directional

So the belt the belt spins and it rotates this way, so

You've got to sand parallel to the wood grain For this to give you good results if you sand across the wood grain, you're just going to get some ugly scratches on the wood

Maybe they won't show up too much when the wood is bare But as soon as you put on any kind of a finish, especially a finish that's got a color to it like a stain

It's going to bring those cross-grain scratches out Don't recommend the belt sander for for deck use

This is the handheld model you want Different companies make them but six inch random orbit. That's what you're looking for

General sanding use an 80 grit disc So the number 80 there

refers to the number of abrasive particles per square inch and So the number 80 there

refers to the number of abrasive particles per square inch approximately You could go 60. 60 is going to get you through your work even faster

It's quite coarse by woodworking standards But in terms of boosting the adhesion of a deck finish to wood

60 does a great job too This is the rig you want