Orbital sanders are versatile tools that are great for a wide range of projects from furniture to flooring. With an orbital sander, you have a tool that can effectively remove material from the surface and provide a beautifully smooth finish.
If you could use only one sander to complete a hardwood flooring job, you would be smart to choose a high-end orbital sander because it can do everything.
What is a Random Orbital Sander?
Random orbital sanders operate with an elliptical and back and forth motion. The random movement pattern removes material quickly and helps eliminate sanding mistakes such as cross-grain scratches and swirl marks.
When you use a random orbital sander, the direction you sand doesn’t matter. What matters is getting uniform coverage.
Benefits of the Best Orbital Sanders
Investing in a high-quality orbital sander makes it easy for you to focus on the sanding, so you can do your best work faster, which means better, consistent surface preparation day in and out.
The best orbital sanders make sanding easier and more fun. Cheap sanders can do the job, but operating them can be a pain with all the noise, dust, and vibration.
One of the most frequent complaints about orbital sanders is that they produce a lot of dust. This leads to a messy workspace and unhealthy environment from the dust particles.
Orbital sanders also tend to vibrate and generate noise, which can be increasingly annoying over time, both for you and people nearby.
With a top-grade orbital sander, you won’t have your hand tingling after long sanding sessions like you will with a cheaper option. You won’t have as much noise or dust, either. Dust, noise, and vibration issues become a thing of the past.
Overall, the best orbital sanders offer a much improved sanding experience.
Smooth, Powerful, and Efficient
If you know sanders, it won’t come as a surprise that we consider the Festool ETS 150/5 EQ-Plus to be the best orbital sander for its quality proposition relative to price.
The Festool ETS 150/5 EQ-Plus has a 6” (150mm) pad and a 5mm stroke. It’s a “do-everything” sander that’s great for heavy stock removal and achieving a fine finish – especially if you work your way through the grits and keep the speed low. And with this lightweight sander, you can do it all one-handed.
The pad on this sander is fully engaged in orbital drive, so the sander won’t jump over knots. Instead, it drives over any surface changes to provide a seamless sanding experience.
You can also see the orbital drive in action when you shut the sander off. Most sanders will continue to spin for a short while after you stop them. With the ETS 150/5 EQ-Plus, the sander stops spinning almost instantly.
Besides being smooth, powerful, and efficient, this sander is also quiet, forgiving, and equipped for superior dust collection. The proprietary power chord integrates easily with any Festool dust extractor for a night and day difference in dustless sanding. When you pair it with a Festool dust extractor, you won’t have dust on the table or dust in the air. Just a beautiful, shiny finish without swirl marks.
If the ETS 150/5 EQ-Plus is out of your price range, you may want to look at Festool’s 125 REQ-Plus, a highly affordable and nice little 5” pad sander.
You can find many lists of top orbital sanders available on Amazon that lead you to believe you have plenty of options for purchasing the best sanders at bargain prices. Beware of buying a cheap orbital sander with high expectations. They burn out fast with heavy use, and the vibration levels are crazy high. There’s also all that dust.
It can be tempting to buy more tools of lower quality for the price of one top tier tool, but many serious professionals find that it saves time and money in the long run to invest in a high-quality sander.
You will enjoy sanding much more when you have the best tool for the job. You will also do your best work.
Want to know if the hype is real? Go with Festool.