Linear Sander

[mbartlett99]

Hi All

I'm all at sea for a while (literally) but planning my return and the start of my first really decent sized project - a new kitchen. I'm in the proocess of planning it all out and keeping an eye out for tools/materials on ebay etc. The reason for posting though is that this project is going to call for a serious amount of sanding; carcasses will one lot but my two ROS's are good for that. The doors however are going to need more finesse; cherry frames/curly maple panels. To make life a little easier I'm thinking about a Festool Linear sander but have never used one - anyone out there with experience?

 

[custard]

All you need to know,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lRbGRk9DkY

I've looked at this a couple of times, as random orbit sanders can leave swirl marks no matter how careful you are, especially on really fine grained timbers like Maple or Swiss Pear. But for my output (typically 10-15 items of furniture a year) it's just not warranted as the final finish sanding by hand is no more than a few passes with 240 or 320 grit which is really all it takes to remove swirl marks. For getting right into the corners on non-fielded Shaker style panels I prefer self adhesive abrasives on a very hard sanding block, one workshop I worked in had a linear sander (not a Festool) and while it was good for rails and stiles a hard sanding block still did a better job getting tight into corners and against edges.

https://www.classichandtools.com/cgi-bi ... 3M_2d0259x

Excellent as the 3M stuff is the price in the UK is very high, when I used to work in the US I'd bring back rolls of it at half these prices, when those stocks are gone I'll be searching to see if there's anything cheaper that still does a decent job!

The killer app for the Festool linear sander are possibly the custom moulding blocks, and if you were say a joinery shop working with a small range of standard mouldings that could be very useful, but for the rest of us I'm not so sure.

Good luck!

 

[petermillard]

I have the LS130, and pretty much agree with everything Custard says above - it's certainly my least-used sander, and tends to only be used on one specific type of job these days. I tried the custom-moulding blocks and while they worked well enough, you need to be doing an awful lot of the same profile to make them worthwhile; I also found that they weren't terribly good at getting into fine mouldings (there's a limit to how thinly an abrasive can fold) so I ended up finishing off by hand anyway.

They do seem to come up quite regularly on eBay - perhaps some folks buy one for a specific job and sell it one, perhaps they buy it, try it and decide it's not for them - so there's every chance you could pick one up pretty cheaply if the above hasn't put you off too much!

HTH Pete

 

[mbartlett99]

Cheers guys - echoing my own thoughts. Peter - does it actually give a fine finish?

I wouldn't be buying new thats for sure - time/cost benefit - but am keen to cut down the tedious bits. Its a lot of surface area to be doing.

Will be hand scraping the panels and prefinishing them before fitting but absolutely agree that nothing going to eliminate had sanding especially the little bits.

Custard - hear you on the 3M, yikes is pricey here. I used to live in Georgia and picked up the PSA stuff by the box from my local shipyard supply house for nothing. Remember when I moved back to the UK asking for 20L of denatured alcohol and just getting blank looks, spent all day looking for it until someone told me that was meths. Vive la difference.

 

[petermillard]

Cheers guys - echoing my own thoughts. Peter - does it actually give a fine finish?

With care and some fine grits it would probably do a decent enough job, though I wouldn't call it a fine finish sander tbh - it has a 4mm stroke - so I'd say geared more towards paintwork prep; certainly, that's what I use mine for.

HTH Pete

 

[graduate_owner]

I have an old in-line sander made by Multico, and badged as Wagner Professional. I don-t use it much but it is good for a nice fine finish. It does seem slow compared to other types though. Anyhow I thought I would mention it as these may come up on the likes of ebay and would probably be much cheaper than Festool.
Also I remember a B and D (I think) sander which was switchable between orbital and in-line, but hever tried one out


K

 

[Keith 66]

The car trade uses inline sanders a lot, known as Air files they are air powered & take a stick on pad about 18" long by 2 1/2" wide.
The stroke is about 1 1/2", they are great for fairing curved surfaces & also excellent at sanding clinker built boats! You need a big compressor to drive one as they eat air.
I also have a long bed sander made by Rupes but they are hellish expensive.

 

[mbartlett99]

The car trade uses inline sanders a lot, known as Air files they are air powered & take a stick on pad about 18" long by 2 1/2" wide.
The stroke is about 1 1/2", they are great for fairing curved surfaces & also excellent at sanding clinker built boats! You need a big compressor to drive one as they eat air.
I also have a long bed sander made by Rupes but they are hellish expensive.

Yeah seen air files in action for fairing - the paint teams use them but I've no air compressor. The grunt work I'll do with a ros its just the finish work as there's a lot of surface to cover. Seen the rupes units - way out of my league though. Cheers.