4 affordable sanders that will take your woodworking to the next level

For all beginning woodworkers I only recommend a single sander the random

orbit sander it's so useful that I consider it an essential woodworking

tool but there are some other fairly affordable Sanders that can make your

time in the shop even more enjoyable and efficient if you're just starting to

build your workshop hold off on these and get your essential tools first and

to help you out I've assembled a handy guide of affordable tools at my tool

list.com download it for free to learn how you

can get all the basic tools you need for under $1000 this first sander is my

favorite and it's actually two Sanders it's got a one inch strip sander and a

disc sander you can buy these two separately but they're commonly sold in

a single unit like this one I bought this tool close to 20 years ago because

I wanted the disc sander the one inch strip sander seemed nice but I doubted I

would really get much use out of it and as it turned out I keep finding more and

more uses for it and now I absolutely love using the strip sander I probably

use it just as often as I do the disc sander I use it for sanding small pieces

and it's great for reaching into space is impossible with other Sanders say

widening thin slots I use it for a freehand shaping of pieces it's probably

the most artistic sander there is you can actually sculpt with it

and it's great for sharpening tools lawnmower blades axes as well as

cleaning stuff off of tools this unit has an 8 inch disc sander something that

doesn't seem to be very common anymore most of these hobby grade tools seem to

come with a 5 inch sander now but it should work out finding that extra

diameter probably doesn't add much when you're sanding curves and that's the

main use for a disc sander to sand outside curbs no matter what kind of saw

you use to cut curves it'll be nearly impossible to get smooth edges and the

advantage to using this rather than a random orbit sander is it this has a

table so you can make sure your sanding square to the face of the board plus the

table tilts so that you can sand bevels and there's a miter gauge for sanding

writers a disc sander is especially handy when you need to sand something

down to a precise line about the only thing I don't like about this is that it

uses adhesive backed sanding discs and changing them out is a real pain and

once you peel it off you can't replace it so as a result I just buy 120 grit

sandpaper and leave it on probably way past its useful life I think if you buy

some converters that you could glue on so that you can use velcro fasteners but

I'm not really sure about that

A spindle sander works on inside curves it comes with all different size diameters

spindles and the sandpaper comes in tubes that slide down on to them the

tool spins to sand but it also has an up-and-down oscillating motion to

prevent scratch mark patterns just like your random orbit sander does so usually

you just find the diameter that most closely matches your curve you drop the

spindle in place and start sanding since it's only attached on one end you can

use it to sand or in large holes or get into other hard to sand spots and having

a flat table ensures that you're keeping your sanded edges square to the faces

detail sander picks up where your random orbit sander leaves off it can get into

tight corners because of its pointy tip but also because it's lightweight it's

also very handy for any areas where other sanders just might be difficult to

wield a random orbit sander is heavy and it's oscillating action makes it kind of

hard to keep steady on areas where you might be working against gravity a

finishing sander is a lot less fatiguing to use my handheld belt sander is

probably the most aggressive sander in my shop and on this list its main

purpose is for removing lots of material fast it can take a little finesse to use

it in such a way that doesn't ruin your workpiece if you tip it just a little

it'll gouge into the wood and if you hold it in one place too long it'll dig

right into the surface so when you use a belt sander you want to always keep it

in motion however if you tip it upside down and clamp it to your workbench

you'll get much better control since you control the workpiece instead of the

tool in fact you might consider a stationary belt sander these typically

have four inch wide belts and are mounted horizontally some come with a

disk sander just like my strip sander and that might be handy to actually have

to disc Sanders where you can keep the coarse sandpaper on one and have the

other with say medium grit I've never owned a stationary belt sander so I

can't speak personally about them but a lot of people love having them and

there's certainly been times when I wished I had one thanks for watching

everybody.