A Cheep Orbital Dry-Wall Sander

[wncchester]

That big wind storm that blew across the country about 2 months ago put a large tree into my house, damaging the roof and several sheets of ceiling drywall.  I'm fixing it myself and wish I had a Porter-Cable drywall sander but can't see that price for my limited use.  Happened on a cheap sander alternative this week that is too good to keep to myself!

Lowe's sells a light weight, "Task Force" brand, 10" random orbital buffer for $30.  It has a moderately firm plastic foam pad.  I happened to have a $4 pack of five Harbor Freight 10" self-stick sanding discs and stuck one on the buffer.  The two work great as a large size dry wall sander!   The machine is much too light for pro level work but for a home owner/hobbyist it is well worth the money. 

I'll try it for finish sanding large wood surfaces later.

[DalesCarpentry]

This is just my 2 cents but go get a 1/4 sheet palm sander and you will be further ahead. I have done remodeling and building houses for 23 years now and when I first started finishing drywall I allways put it on to thick. It took forever to sand by hand but when I got one of those sanders it cut my sanding by hours.

[wncchester]

Dale, palm sanders do work well for most dry wall tasks, in fact I usually use a 5" random orbit DeWalt sander on normal sheet rock joints.  But this time, due to some remodeling along with the repairs, I have some 6" wide patches to sand level.  With the 10" sander (buffer) I did MUCH better at making those really flat.  With four times the 5 incher's surface area, I found it does really well on normal joints also.

[DalesCarpentry]

I tried to use a random orbitol sander and found it removed to much to fast.

[wncchester]

Dale, my DeWalt is a variable speed, I set it to the lowest speed and use a 220 grit paper usually.  Still have to keep it moving!

[CJ]

Another 2 cents here, if you need power tools to sand drywall joints your working waaay to thick. At worst I use one of the 3-M fine sanding blocks and mostly just use a wet sponge. If the drywall is hung proper its a piece of cake to get it smooth. If not , most of the time I find its easier to put another thin coat on than put it on thick and sand that much.

[DalesCarpentry]

Another 2 cents here, if you need power tools to sand drywall joints your working waaay to thick. At worst I use one of the 3-M fine sanding blocks and mostly just use a wet sponge. If the drywall is hung proper its a piece of cake to get it smooth. If not , most of the time I find its easier to put another thin coat on than put it on thick and sand that much.

I understand that. I was talking about when I first started finishing drywall. In the years since I do alot less sanding.