Sheet Sanders for Woodworking Projects

When it comes to power sanders for your woodworking plans, you really have three choices:

- Belt Sander
- Random Orbital Sander
- Sheet Sander

Each have advantages and disadvantages, but for this conversation, let's focus on the sheet sander.

Sheet sanders are built to work with partial sheets of standard sandpaper, whereas belt sanders require properly sized sanding belts, and random orbital sanders require round disks, typically attached to the sander base with either adhesive or hook-and-loop type fasteners. The ability to use standard sandpaper is a major advantage for sheet sanders, since sheets of sandpaper are readily available at any home center or hardware store. The sheets are cut into halves or quarters and are then securely clamped onto the flat base of the sander.

Sheet sanders employ a motor that moves the sanding pad in a circular motion at high speed. This is similar to the motion of a random orbital sander, except that the random orbit model has a special offset drive bearing that also moves the pad in an elliptical manner. When these two motions are employed together, theycause the pad of the random orbital sander to be just that: random. This will help reduce the tiny circular swirls that a standard, non-random sheet sander may leave behind.

Sheet sanders are useful, primarily because they require readily available sandpaper, and because they are inexpensive. A good sheet sander will typically cost one-half to one-third of a good random orbital sander.

Sheet sanders are available with numerous features, such as a dust collection port, electronic speed control and different types of grips. The Palm Sander is probably the most popular style of sheet sander, but some larger, two-handed models are also available.

Because the sheet sander can leave behind swirls, particularly when moving against the grain, you need to keep the sander moving, working as much with the grain as possible. Additionally, to reduce the swirls you should sand using progressively finer grits of sandpaper, as each successive sanding (with a finer grit) will take out the swirls left behind by the previous sanding. You may find that your last sanding (with the finest grit) should be followed up by a hand sanding for a perfect finish.