Professional Sanders for Tradesmen

Sanding machines may be either the drum type or disk type (floor polisher). In drum sanders the sandpaper is mounted on a cylindrical drum that rotates on an axis parallel to the plane of the floor. Thus the sandpaper makes its scratches in straight lines in the direction of movement of the machine. In disk sanders the sandpaper is mounted on a disk that rotates in a circle in the plane of the floor. As a disk sander is moved over the floor, the grits make spiral scratches that necessarily cross the grain of the wood. A drum sander, however, can not reach the last few inches of floor nearest the baseboard. Electric edgers, which are small disk sanders, are available for sanding these edges of the floor or they may be done by hand.

Suggested Sander References

Woodworking Forums
Welcome to the 12" Disc Sanders forum. A forum for you to share your opinions of the disc sanders reviewed in the December 2002 issue of WOOD magazine.

Belt Sander
Belt sanders are used to remove large amounts of wood in order to roughly sand the wood to shape. For example, if the wood in question has small ridges in it, a belt sander can be used to flatten these out.

Rotary Sander
The hand held Rotary Sander is specially designed & manufactured in Australia for use on the woodturning lathe.

Online Shop for Sanders at ToolNet
An online shop for excellently priced sanders for DIY enthusiasts and tradesmen, with all the necessary accessories.

Removing Paint
Read the following suggestions carefully on how to remove old paint or varnish. They can help you do a better job with considerably less effort.