Right Angle Randon Orbital Sander - Electric

[Ira W Sollace]

Checking see if anyone knows if there is a 3.5 inch right angle randon orbital sander out on the market that is electric not air.

I've convinced myself I saw one recently in a trade magazine but have been unable to locate it again. I'm now thinking I dreamed it up.

Any help would be appreicated.

 

[Mark Levitski]

You weren't dreaming. Metabo makes one.

 

[Vaughn]

It's not 3 1/2", but if 3 1/8" is close enough...

http://www.amazon.com/Metabo-SXE400-8-Inch-Random-Sander/dp/B00004YBX5

I have one and it works nicely. Kind of limited to only getting inside large and/or shallow bowls, but it does outsides beautifully. The variable speed is useful for me.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I have one of the Matabo and one of the Griots Garage
http://autogeek.net/griots-orbital-polisher.html

Use them for polishing not sanding, but I like them both. Not much difference between the two except the Matabo has a brake on it. The Griot's is meant for polishing so it may have an issue with wood dust.

 

[Ira W Sollace]

Metabo Sander

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'm curious about the high speed of the OPM, 5,000 to 10,000. Seems like a very high speed for sanding. I work on both green and dried wood.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'm curious about the high speed of the OPM, 5,000 to 10,000. Seems like a very high speed for sanding. I work on both green and dried wood.

Thats a good question that I never thought of.....
The Metabo is 5K-10K, but with a random orbit, they talk no load speed. I don't think those are at all attainable with the sandpaper in contact with the wood. As soon as you touch, the disk slows down dramatically, in fact, if you have a soft pad in between you will see if distort until you touch the wood.
The Metabo has a brake, a piece of rubber between the metal side of the disk and the body, to slow down the disk under pressure (I guess). I took it off to see how it performs, but it didn't make a whole lot of difference. They don't have much torque, and probably don't need to. The idea with an RO is to make the little swirls you would like to with a drill. The little swirls help to hide the previous grits scratch marks.

If you were in the TX area, you can come by and try both of them, but your profile doesn't show where you are.

But because of physical size, they don't work well on th inside if small pieces.