Sanders

 Bad afternoon.

I have several commissions ongoing at the moment, all involve plywood and large areas of timber to sand. Whilst working last Thursday I noticed the belt sander was making more noise than usual, it had been sparking for a while and I was fairly sure the motor bearings were about to give way. Suddenly the machine seized and a whisp of smoke curled from the motor housing. (RIP belt sander).

My second machine is a half sheet finishing sander. Again it has done noble service all the way through the cottage rebuild and during the restoration of Katies property in Birmingham. As with the belt sander it has had lots of heavy use and about an hour after the belt sander had died, the finishing sander also packed up.

I dont believe in using under spec tools and as Mr  H woodwork seems to be taking off at the moment I decided it was time to replace the two machines. I sought the opinions of fellow woodworkers on a facebook forum and Makita came out as favourite.

 

 

 

 

 

Replacements

Breaking 2 machines in one afternoon was not good news and a huge unplanned expense.

Trawling the internet I needed a belt sander the same size as my last machine having recently ordered a supply of belts of different grades which I did not want to waste. The 9903 was the right size so the Amazon prime account was activated and the machine arrived the next day.

The finishing sander needed more research. A lot of people seem to use random orbital sanders, but they use round discs of velcro backed paper. As with the belt sander I have rolls of sandpaper to fit the finishing sander. The other thought was to go for a battery sander but the machines tend to be used for prolonged periods and the battery machines seem to have very mixed reviews.

Research complete a finishing sander was ordered and duly arrived so I am now back in action with a bruised bank balance.