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I'm looking to buy a finishing sander and would like to get your opinions on the brand and style. Specifically, should I go with a circular of 1/4 sheet orbital sander? Any advantage of one over the other?

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

I like the Porter Cable.

Al

I recently read an article recently in FWW about ROS. I ended up getting the top rated Bosch. I think it was $80 at Lowe's.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Don have you thought of air powered ROS's. Dynabrade is what a lot of auto finishers use and it's supposed to be a very very good sander.

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Todd said it. The Dynabrade is the best option, but if you want electric and not pneumatic, then Festool is the best (Read: NOT the cheapest. Festools are incredibly expensive, but they are worth it if you can afford them).
I own a Bosch and it works pretty well. I just wish it were lighter, and less bulky to use.

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i've not found the need to expend the big bucks for festool despite their excellent reputation.

there are othet things you want to think about, namely the orbit size and comfort in the hand, type of paper attachment(psa v h&l), and disk price and availability.

the smaller the orbit the better for a finish sander, and the hand issue is twofold, i.e. fit in the hand and the vibration level.

i've used dewalt and bosch, as well as some cheapies, but
of the readily available and reasonably priced machines i found the porter cable 333vs to fit my hand best with little vibration discomfort. it has a built in dust sucker as well, but is better hooked up to a good shopvac. it also had an industry best orbit size at the time.

it comes with h&l paper attachment which i prefer, and uses disks with a common hole configuration readily available from all major vendors.

i would like to go to the air driven machines but have to work at a radical upgrading of my compressor before that is going to happen.

Thanks for all of your responses. It appears that the 1/4 paper finishing sanders are not the way to go.

I'm sure the Festool is a great sander but won't go that route unless I decided to get the vacuum to go along with it. I already have a Jet 640 dust collector and Jet air filter so I've been planning to build a downdraft table to fit on my router table. However, the dust collector is a bit loud and I have a basement shop in a townhouse with neighbors on one side. The Festool combo might be just the ticket for the lighter work (though space is at a premium).

I would really like to go with an air setup but I'm sure the neighbors, or for that matter the wife, wouldn't be at all happy with a compressor running.

Thanks everyone for your reviews of the Bosch, DeWalt and PC. I am definitely going to purchase a variable speed no matter which one I finally choose. I've still got some decisions to make and think I really need to go to a store and handle the sanders rather than just shopping online.

Again, thanks so much for your suggestions.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

don, regarding your comment about the dust collector noise; you can reduce it markedly with a silencer, shop vacs too.. you can read about building one on joewoodworkers site.