Orbital sander ??

Yes, I have. All I can say is that I was very disappointed with the result. The sander worked well for the first minute or so, then the disk got clogged and stopped cutting. It was not the whole disk that clogged up (I would have been happy with that), but just a small ring that formed. I actually just posted a thread on this like a week or so ago, you might be able to find it. I was talking about my newly discovered idea of using one of the small 2" hook and loop sanding attachments like they make for use on a drill. They work excellent in my opinion. And you can even go slow enough to put a little oil in the mixture without it splashing all over or making a mess....eliminates the need for a dust mask as well. With the orbital you need a dust mask even though it might have a little dust port.
I put a link to the thread for you, but I don't think anyone's replied to it. Maybe you could be the first.:D

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=689609
 
Orbital sanders can be very handy for primary finishing. You need to use wet/dry SC paper on a hard rubber backing that is contoured to the blade grind (if hollow ground.) Attach the paper to the backing block with spray adhesive.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Orbital sanders can be very handy for primary finishing. You need to use wet/dry SC paper on a hard rubber backing that is contoured to the blade grind (if hollow ground.) Attach the paper to the backing block with spray adhesive.
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Maybe that was the reason for the problem I was having with it. Nevertheless, I found the small 2" disks to be really effective. I like the slower speed and the fact that I could use the oil or water to help. I found the orbital sander a bit to big and fast for my preference. I get a lot more control with the smaller hand hold flexible attachment for my drill press.
 
Angus McGunnigl said:
What I mean from Orbital sander is more like a jitterbug sander that dosen't spin, but just vibrates. Like this one.

http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-D26441...ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1258349174&sr=1-9
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I asked here about the palm-type sanders you showed as well. The opinion I got was that they would not work very well as compared to the rotating type. I know, I wanted to try one of these palm sanders out as well at first. I had actually bought on of the other orbital rotating sanders and ended up returning it to the store.
 
I used one on an unheat treated knife and it gave it a nice stone wash look. I think it had something around 100 or 150 grit on it. It was called a random orbital sander I think. The one that vibrates and spins somewhat.
 
I've used both. It's great for primary sanding. It will not get out the deeper scratches, and in either type will leave lots of fish-hook scratches. It will save you a little bit of time, but it is no replacement for a hand sanded finish by any stretch of the imagination.

I've had better success with an 8 inch disk sander, to be honest, and don't even use the palm sanders any more.
 
The two inch little drill attachment that I use does get out all the deeper scratches. I think the orbital sander just goes too fast. I use the 2" disk and put some mineral oil on the blade to lubricate it. In the book The $50 Knife Shop by Wayne Goddard, he is shown using a larger version of what I am referring to. It is just a flat disk attachment for his hand drill, his is about 4" inches in diameter though I think. The smaller 2" one I use attached to a flex shaft and going at a rate of @800rmps gives you a great amount of control and you can really work at those scratches and pay attention to detail which is something that is hard to do with a big spinning or vibrating orbital sander. I can get large 6" hook and loop disks up to 1500 grit if I wanted to and just cut them out to 2" size for my purposes. That gives me about 5 little disks which makes it pretty cheap to use. Actually it is a lot cheaper than hand sanding because I found that with hand sanding it is hard to fully use all the sand paper without ending up with a lot of waste.
 
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