sanding wood seems simple enough but it's such a critical part of the project that every one of us would do well to just learn a bit more about it and I've made several I think pretty good tutorials on this subject I'll link to them below this video seriously if you want to really improve your Technique and get Flawless results check out those videos they're full of tips that even a lot of folks with decades in this craft may not know you'll be a better woodworker after watching those videos and your projects will show it but every time I make a sanding video I always get the same question what's the difference between a random orbital sander like this one and a finishing sander like this one so in this video I'm going to explain the differences and I'll tell you why you might pick one over the other I'll also invite you to share your personal experiences in the comments below because not everyone's going to have the same opinion here and I think it'd be great if others can read those comments and benefit from multiple points of view so let's start with this one some call this a finishing sander because it's most often used for fine sanding with fine grits as opposed to rough sanding and shaping that might be done with a more aggressive tool like a belt sander it's also sometimes referred to as an orbital sander that's because of the circular pattern that it creates which I'll talk about shortly personally I tend to call these quarter sheet Sanders because they take one quarter of a full sheet of sandpaper there's also larger versions called half sheet Sanders and I bet you can guess why now being able to use regular sandpaper sheets is a real benefit to this type of sander not only is sheet paper less expensive usually than sanding discs but you can use the same paper on a lot of hand sanding blocks and that sort of convenience is what drew me to quarter sheet orbital sanders when I first started out in this craft another benefit is that this isn't a very aggressive sander so you're much less likely to mess something up by removing too much wood sure you can put some really coarse paper on here and do some real damage that way but using finer grit paper you're less likely to accidentally burn through a hardwood veneer on plywood for example and because this sander doesn't spin it's a bit easier to control you may notice this especially if you're sanding a radiused edge on the edge of a panel but there are some downsides to quarter sheet orbital sanders I remember I used to think that it merely vibrated by moving back and forth really quickly but the base is actually moving in a tight circular pattern now if you were to hold this sander in one spot you'd end up with a bunch of tiny circular scratches in the wood when you move the sander to the side those circles stretch out into tiny elongated spirals neither of these patterns are something you want to see in your wood so you have to move the sander back and forth up and down changing direction and overlapping The Strokes again and again to blend all those spirals together because of this you have to be careful with these types of Sanders because they're prone to leaving those ugly pigtail scratches which you never seem to notice until you put the finish on and it can destroy the look of your project by the way orbital sanders aren't all square they come in all shapes and sizes but they suffer from these same issues because of that orbital pattern that they all make that doesn't mean they're bad if you're really diligent about your Technique and for example you make sure you hook this up to a shop vacuum to keep any dust or little bits of loose grit from building up underneath which frankly you should be doing with any type of sander if you do that it is possible to get a great finish with a quarter sheet orbital sander and I invite those who really do like these to share their experience in the comments below now this is a random orbital sander it still moves in that orbital pattern making those tight circles but at the same time the disc also rotates or spins slowly so the effect is that a single bit of grit on the disc beneath never follows the same path in successive orbits and theoretically this randomizes the scratch pattern I say theoretically because this type of Stander can still leave pigtail scratches if you don't keep an eye on things again I have tutorials full of tips including many for using random orbit Sanders which I'm going to link to below this video you should check them out but in my experience this type of sander is far less likely to leave those noticeable swirls than this type of sander is another difference with a random orbital sander is the size of the orbit because this has that randomizing effect through the addition of the slowly rotating disc the orbital function can be adjusted to enlarge that circular motion so this creates a slightly more aggressive cut and faster sanding of course that depends on the model that you buy many features smaller one to two millimeter orbits but some have orbits up to three millimeters or more and that removes stocks significantly faster so in my opinion there are fewer downsides to the random orbital sander but there are some for example the hook and loop discs can cost a bit more than simple sanding sheets and while special sanding blocks do make it possible to use the same discs for hand sanding I feel like you do end up with a bit more waste with this type of paper of course you may be wondering why I'd hand sand it all if I have power Sanders well that's because all power Sanders cut in all directions including across the Grain and unless you hand sand your final grit you'll notice scratches under the Finish especially in certain lighting conditions so no matter which sander you choose you will always get your best results if you hand sand with the grain using just your final grit before finishing that's just one of the lessons that are taught in the other tutorials that I've made and linked to below but before you check those out here's something else I think you'll find interesting I've used a lot of featherboards over the years but the bow feather pro has really caught my attention the fingers easily Bend in the feed direction that produces just the right amount of pressure for a smooth and even feed rate but should something go wrong and the saw decides to kick that board back at you the unique curved shape at the top of the fingers combined with that living hinge at the base produces a cam-like action that greatly increases the pressure and virtually locks the board in place the manufacturer claims five times greater pull resistance than a standard feather board but I think it's more than that it's really a unique design that honestly has changed my attitude about how useful feather boards actually are is anti-kickback devices maybe you should get just one of them so you can try it for yourself I'm sure you're going to agree that it is the smoot
