What sander for the home handyman?

[delphinius]

My dad is considering buying a new sander, but is unsure as to what sander would be more ideal for him.
He doesn't do a lot with them, mostly just sanding off old lacquer etc on old cupboards, and smaller fiddlier jobs he normally resorts to using sandpaper in his hand for.
Can someone please help?
Thanks in advance

Annie

[Gumby]

What't the budget ?

You can go from GMC for well under $100 to Festool for 6 or 7 hundred?

A Random orbital would be my choice of type but the brand will depend on how much you want to spend.

[Trav]

If it is just casual stuff, a GMC random orbital sander would be fine. I bought a mighty mouse by black and decker the other day. It has a stack of features (random orbit, lots of different size/shape pads etc etc).

Good buying for $90 I think.

Trav

[Bodgy]

Delphic


Get the old boy two! Aldi Supermarkets have a mouse sander for less than $20 currently.

Less than a round of beers at the boozer.

[debugger]

Not sure how many of you have a mouse sander, but I'm onto my third yesterday. :(
Previously purchased a small B&D mouse sander a few years back and with rare use I managed to get just over a year out of it when the base finally broke. :eek:
Then, swmbo got the new larger 4 in 1 multi sander which appeared more robust :rolleyes:, and we did in fact get 18 Months before both bases were destroyed.:(

The problem I believe is the Velcro base used to attach the diamond tip. This diamond tip gets replaced often for detailed work and they in fact provide spare diamond pads for each sandpaper 'sheet'. All the Velcro under the 'diamond tip' is worn away and no retailers that were open over the weekend had any :mad:, it’s not a consumable... Well, this time I thought 'why should I keep buying replacements - when its $100 per hit and the consumables aren’t cheap either'. So I booked it into Bunning for repair/replacement but I didn’t retain the cardboard outer (careful to repackage exactly as original for replacement and so it’s off to the manufacturer for repair. Stay tuned for an update...:confused:

Since our time is far more valuable that a lousy mouse sander, I looked around for a temp. I liked the Bosch ones but ended up again with a GMC version for $40 including a dozen or so pads. Runs quieter, better quality sandpaper (especially since it lacks the diamond break off part that always tears away) and its a little smaller so easier to handle and can be used easily with one hand. Also the tongue has a slightly larger overlap and I could get in-between the slats in the furniture.


Couldnt help note that there were NO B&D mouse sanders in the store, does that say something...



I love the invention, found nothing yet that works so quick, but remember to have heaps of paper, don’t press hard and I believe in future these things will probably be in the consumables section or new materials will extend their lifetime into a valid 'power tool'....