Sanders w integrated dust extraction?

[Tony Perelli]

Hi - Does anybody have success using Mirka or Festool type of sanders with the integrated vacuum dust extraction for sanding bowls on the lathe?

Mirka makes a 3" tool, not sure about Festool.
Any reduction of sanding dust seems to be an upgrade.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Tony

 

[Brian Gustin]

if you refer to sanding for the likes of , say, bowl turning, I doubt it would be all that effective - most sanding dust , assuming you sand with lathe spinning, is ejecting to the outside anyway (so a sanding hood fitting on the lathe would be far more effective) Personally, I think Mirka and Festool are just over-priced hyped-up brands - you can find equally good quality tools for less money from your regular "plain old, plain old" everyday quality brands like Makita, Dewalt, etc.

For the "features" offered by those "premium" brands like Festool, I don't think they add a whole lot to the bargain for the price you pay (but then they have to charge big prices to pay the influencers and hype-sters to sell their tools for them!)

I simply can't imagine sanding a bowl with a 3" sander that had built-in dust extraction and not having most of the dust still escape the extractor - when sanding a bowl, your sanding pad is rarely ever laying flat enough for the dust extraction (that I assume sucks it up through the pad) to be able to work effectively... most of the dust is being ejected from the edges of the spinning disk, away from the dust extraction..

 

[Tony Perelli]

Hi Brian - Thanks for your input! Yes, I am thinking for bowl turning, thanks for clarifying that, I just edited my original post to include that point.

 

[robo hippy]

You could use the Festool type on the outside of a bowl. It wouldn't work well on the inside. Having that vacuum on a 3 inch disc might come in handy. Only way I have found was to take a 55 gallon food grade drum, white, and make it so the bowl was 80% enclosed and with me standing in front of it, no dust escapes. Only what gets on my hands. I have a video on 'sanding hood for bowls' or some thing like that.

robo hippy

 

[David Martin]

Go ahead and laugh, and I have to admit my expectations were low, but this thing really works. I have about an hour of my time, some shop scrap and $5 in furnace filters invested. Inside the box is a squirrelcage blower I had on the shelf, it blows straight up through the top of the box and obviously draws air from the bottom. I don't know how long you could sand with this before the filter got plugged, but when it does it's a simple matter of slide it out, take it outside, blow some air through it and slide it back in. I just made this last night so have only tried it for a few minutes. I'm only interested in controling the light airborn dust, not the heavier shavings. I'm actually surprised at how well it controls the dust, I did not notice any dust in my nose nor did I notice any dust in the air around the lathe. With some shrouding and better quality filters it would probably work even better. Another thing I like about it is that it is very quiet. This is obviously not for someone who is turning for extended periods but I think it may suit my needs quite nicely.

 

[Kevin Jenness]

I use a 5" Festool random orbit sander on the outside of vessels. The vacuum connection helps but is not as effective as on flat work. Metabo makes a small random orbit sander with a vacuum connection that may be useful. I think some people on this site have them and may chime in. Metabo

I have to disagree about the merits of Festool and Mirka sanders. They are considerably better than anything but Dynabrade type air sanders and maybe Surfprep and 3M offerings in terms of ergonomics, smooth operation and dust collection, at least for cabinetwork, and worth the extra $ in my opinion. I wouldn't go out and buy one just for bowl sanding, though.