I think you'll be helped by a sander with superior dust collection. I don't know if any sander can eliminate circular markings but some of that occurs because loose grit gets stuck in between the sander and the work. Good dust collection can eliminate or reduce that. Festool and Bosch make sanders with good dust extraction. Those are what I have and they work well. I can't vouch for other brands as I have not used them.

You really would do well to acquire a vacuum intended for dust extraction too.

 

I have a very old Craftsman half sheet flat pad sander I have not used in years. It has two settings, one is orbital the other is straight line sanding motion. The straight line motion removed the fine swirl scratches. I haven't used it in a long time but it worked quite well. I still went over everything by hand.
In my opinion regardless of the power sander used for a scratch free surface I would go over it with a hand held sanding pat and 400 or finer sand paper. I made a cabinet a few years ago out of Myrtle wood (Calif. Bay Laurel) that was terrible about showing up every little scratch. I had to go over it several times by hand down to 400 grit and finally buffed it with 0000 steel wool to burnish out the very fine scratches.

The sanders I see listed today only have orbital motion so there will always be a chance of sanding swirls.
It is hard to go wrong with Festool and I see they have a variable speed which might be beneficial over the single speed brands. Mikata has a battery model with 3 speeds.

 

Loren and LesB: Thank you for the input.
Clowner

 

"The best" can be very expensive. I guess it depends on your budget and your use case. Me perosnally I am a hobbyist so have a Bosch random orbit and a dewalt 1/4 sheet sander and use those 2. If I had the money I would buy festool or mirka but I can't justify it.

 

I like my Festool ETS 125.

 

I got very lucky recently with a local online auction, the estate had over 500 lots, about 100 of them were for woodworking tools. I scored a Metablo R/O sander that is designed to by hooked up to a vacuum; this is a heavy duty tool, the weight of it sitting on the wood surface is all the pressure needed, you certainly don't need excessive force, which you should never do anyway, no matter how heavy duty or light weight your sander is. I also scored a Fein Turbo II vacuum, complete with the hose and several accessories, some of which don't really go with the vacuum, but they were part of the lot.
Eliminating swirls on your projects can be enhanced by a really nice sander like the ones already mentioned, or if you don't have the budget for the expensive machines, buy what you can afford and use them correctly. Never exert excessive pressure, you "oversand" the work, which causes your paper to wear out faster, but more importantly, you wear out your sander sooner than it should as well. The other aspect of reducing swirls is stepping up to finer grits as your project is being prepped. If you have to start out with an 80 or 100 grit, you should step up incrementally, say, 150 grit, then 220, 320 could then be your finish grit, or perhaps going to a 480 or whatever. Each successive finer grit sands off the swirl marks of the previous grit, but if you skip steps by eliminating the middle steps, you will wear out the finer paper more quickly and possibly not even sand off the swirl marks effectively. There are some excellent videos online, Stumpynubs has a good one about sanding, you may think you know what there is to know about using a powered sander, most of us always have room for improvement in our techniques and/or knowledge.

 

The other aspect of reducing swirls is stepping up to finer grits as your project is being prepped. If you have to start out with an 80 or 100 grit, you should step up incrementally, say, 150 grit, then 220, 320 could then be your finish grit, or perhaps going to a 480 or whatever. Each successive finer grit sands off the swirl marks of the previous grit, but if you skip steps by eliminating the middle steps, you will wear out the finer paper more quickly and possibly not even sand off the swirl marks effectively.

- bobfromsanluis

Very good advice. I have seen people apply pressure with 80, then skip to 220 and then finish, then wonder why there are swirl marks. Another thing that can help, especially with cheaper paper is to vaccuum or wipe off sand particles from each successive grit. It only takes a couple grains of 80 aluminum oxide that fell off the cheap hardware store paper to then get ground into the wood by the next grit

 

What size pad are you looking for? There's many options in the 5" and 6" ROS class with prices to fit any budget. If you're looking for a 1/3 or 1/2 sheet sander the options are greatly reduced, there are some from some good and formerly good tool companies but the selection is minute compared to most any round ROS size.

 

I have that old craftsman combination sander, recently replaced the pad I should have grabbed the one on Craigslist. If you find one, grab it

 

Mirka and Festool are reported as the best. Out of my price league. I HATE my DeWalt, and much prefer my Bosch. Search the WEB. There are some actual reviews of them. Actual, not paste and copy ad or copy some other ad based "review" Even folks like Stumpy Nubs has commented on them. He goes over some techniques to reduce swirl. Often it is the user, not the tool. Of course, the secret is the new open mesh 3M paper.

 

I have found that the pads make the biggest difference, I have a Ridgid 5" 18V that impressed me with the dust collection and smoothness, since switching to 3M sanding disc really pleased, but then again I do very little sanding prefer a blade finish

 

Thank you to all of those that replied. Clear and cogent advice regarding equipment and technique. I appreciate the help. All those owning Craftsman pad sanders with the two directional capacity keep me in mind when you want to sell it.

 

I just saw this video from Stumpy Nubs on the new electric 3M sander last night and it's pretty exciting for 3M to finally make a non-pneumatic ROS. I was able to purchase one last night from the link Stumpy provided, but this morning Taylor Tools is sold out from what they had. I've been fence sitting between getting a Mirka or a Festool and the deal on the 3M pretty much made my mind up for me once I watched Stumpy's review. I did just notice though an old C-man sander for sale here in southern MD in the FB classifieds, if you're in that area at all.

 

I just saw this video from Stumpy Nubs on the new electric 3M sander last night and it s pretty exciting for 3M to finally make a non-pneumatic ROS. I was able to purchase one last night from the link Stumpy provided, but this morning Taylor Tools is sold out from what they had. I ve been fence sitting between getting a Mirka or a Festool and the deal on the 3M pretty much made my mind up for me once I watched Stumpy s review. I did just notice though an old C-man sander for sale here in southern MD in the FB classifieds, if you re in that area at all.

- ChefHDAN

Good ol stumpy has lost my respect for this disingenuous video.

Comparing a $4-500sander to one costing $50-100 is stupid.
Comparing a sander with a 5mm orbit to one with 2 or 3 and saying it's sands faster - is stupid. Of course it does.
Comparing a brushless sander with a brushed one is stupid. Of course it's smoother and quieter.
Hinting that 3m has somehow cracked the code is spurious.

That sander is almost certainly produced by AirVantage and re-labeled for 3m. And 3m has done this before , with poor results. Seems no one wanted to pay xtra for 3M's name and distribution network. The same is likely to happen again once the influencer's hype train loses steam.

Because they're competing with already established distributors of that sander : AirVantage, SurfPrep , and Ekasand, they aren't likely to gain critical mass - especially if they want to charge a premium for their logo. Plus, they'll also compete with Festool and Mirka 5mm orbit offerings.

 

Good ol stumpy has lost my respect for this disingenuous video.

Comparing a $4-500sander to one costing $50-100 is stupid.
Comparing a sander with a 5mm orbit to one with 2 or 3 and saying it's sands faster - is stupid. Of course it does.
Comparing a brushless sander with a brushed one is stupid. Of course it's smoother and quieter.
Hinting that 3m has somehow cracked the code is spurious.

That sander is almost certainly produced by AirVantage and re-labeled for 3m. And 3m has done this before , with poor results. Seems no one wanted to pay xtra for 3M's name and distribution network. The same is likely to happen again once the influencer's hype train loses steam.

Because they're competing with already established distributors of that sander : AirVantage, SurfPrep , and Ekasand, they aren't likely to gain critical mass - especially if they want to charge a premium for their logo. Plus, they'll also compete with Festool and Mirka 5mm orbit offerings.

- xedos

Not sure what you saw but I saw him explain why a $4-500 sander is better than one costing $50-$100.

I did hear him say: "The 3M Xtract sander is comparable in quality and performance to the Mirka or to a Festool sander and that kind of quality doesn't come cheap, so it's not for everyone and I am certainly not saying you need to buy one of these to make quality woodworking projects."

If folks aren't willing to pay a premium for a logo then Lexus, Infiniti, GMC, Lincoln and Acura are in big trouble.

The AirVantage certainly looks more than just a little similar to the 3M at $370-$380 vs. the ~$430 for the 3M.

 

Makita 5" r/o if you can keep the paper

 

Stumpy's videos have to be geared towards the beginner woodworker. ive tried to watch at least 5 or 6 of them and cant make it past the first few. the sound of his voice is like driving a stake into me brain.

 

As stated previously, a lot has to do with technique. You MUST remove all previous remnants of dust and abrasive before moving on to the next higher grit. Let the sander do the work, don't put a lot of downward force/pressure on it. In many cases you don't need to go past 240 grit, and almost never past 320 grit. I used to sand to 400 or 600 until I read several articles about sanding and finishing. Once I stopped at 240 my stained projects looked more even and less splotchy. With that said, I often do a quick once over by hand on the parts that are highly visible using a cork block with 240 or 320 grit with the grain.

 

Festool makes a straight line sander for contours. It can probably be used as a flat sander too but it's not very big.

Craftsman used to make a straight line sander. My dad had one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/254629879503?hash=item3b491f9ecf:g:JS0AAOSwR~Fe7Tk6

 

i have had the low-end sander from Festool and I wore it out in a year. I have a Porter cable ROS that I lik, since 2008. My go to, and my endorsed sander is a Makita. A moderately priced ROS and it has the, far and away, the best adjustable speed range. Slower than others and faster than others!