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Orbital Sanders, which manufacturer and why?

Posted: November 30th, 2018, 6:00 pm
by Semper Fi
Just curious to hear reviews on your sander of choice and why you choose it over others.

Re: Orbital Sanders, which manufacturer and why?

Posted: November 30th, 2018, 6:33 pm
by Brent Deines
For 3" random orbit tools Griots for electric and Chicago Pneumatic for air. We test everything we can find and feel the size, durability, and ease of use is hard to beat with Griots and CP. We really thought Metabo was going to be great as they are made in Germany and have a good reputation but they use plastic gears instead of metal and just don't hold up like the Griots. Harbor freight makes air tools in the 3" for a great price but they do not have the same feel or quality that the CP tools do. My overall preference is an electric tool and I use the Griots for everything except polishing with liquid, which is not always necessary but really makes a headlight look like new again if all of the previous sanding and polishing steps have been done correctly.

If you go up to 5" you have a much better selection of quality tools to pick from but in my opinion that is just too big for headlight restoration.

For polishing with a liquid my preference is the Makita PV7001-C fitted with a 3" arbor and foam polishing pad. They are not random orbit so can bear down more (good for polishing but not sanding headlights). They are also heavy but they are well designed, well made, and my go to tool for polishing with a liquid.

Re: Orbital Sanders, which manufacturer and why?

Posted: December 1st, 2018, 8:05 am
by Semper Fi
Thanks again Brent for a very detailed response.