Random orbital sander with dust extraction. - what’s the best?

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Minerva

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I would like to have a go at refurbishing my internal woodwork and have a long weekend to make a start BUT I need to sleep aboard over the weekend to do it - it’s too far to go home each evening.

So what random orbital sander has the best dust extraction ability? I have a wet / dry vaccum to do the sooking and filtering.

Thanks.
 
Most random orbitals have similar extraction systems so take your pick what brand you choose as i would imagine they all extract reasonably. Variable speed trigger is great to have
 
Rappey said:
Most random orbitals have similar extraction systems so take your pick what brand you choose as i would imagine they all extract reasonably. Variable speed trigger is great to have
Click to expand...

Agreed, I think the vacuum is more important than the sanding tool. Enough suck, and a filter that will effectively capture sanding dust. Standard domestic bags/filters might not be good enough.
 
Ooh.
Given that they all extract dust pretty well, hmm.
Pick the quietest and lightest at a sensible price to you?
Variable speed is more useful than you might think. As is soft start
Because boat panels can resonate in harmony at certain machine rpm settings

I have a 150mm Makita which is brilliant and bombproof but heavy- think Popeye arms unless using on the horizontal flat.

And a DW battery 125mm one which is absolutely fine.

And a cheapo Lidl mains one that is surprisingly pretty good-so good in fact that I did the whole bottom of the boat with it but ooh noise and ooh bit of cheapo vibration and the discs fly off more frequently once contaminated with dust. But it was £20!

You pays yer money and choose.

I would heartily recommend IN ADDITION, a Fein or Fein type battery ( lighter weight)multi tool too for oh so many awkward corners.
And there are a lot of painted corners on a boat iirc
Metabo were the Go To for standing up to boat work but for what you have in mind perhaps just a Chinese knock off that will run on your existing drill batteries will be quiet and light and dustless without breaking the beer fund.

Paint or varnish?
I would not be taking a power tool anywhere near varnishwork down below, just flattening the old paint.
The veneers are just too thin.

And it’s very easy to produce uneven power assisted raw shading on solid, greyed out or flaky teak and mahogany trim pieces .
Instead I have trended to this:
Paint stripper, flat scrapers and 20packs of scotch bright type foam and flat kitchen scrubbers will do the job beautifully and subtly but it takes lots and lots of time and repeat applications and scourings..
Probably way more info than you wanted or needed , sorry about that.
 
I have two pre-owned Random Orbit Sanders I ought to sell.

A Metabo SXE450 and a smaller Ryobi.

Both have dust catchers.

The Metabo can also be connected to a vacuum cleaner. I suppose the Ryobi can as well but I'll have to check.

I'll advertise them on the For Sale forum before long.
 
I misread your title and saw" best for dust extraction" rather than whats the best sander. 🙃
Mirka sander is a crazy price. Is it really better than a makita, bosch, dewalt etc?

Are you aiming to sand paint or varnish back to bare wood/ply or are you doing fine sanding the existing coating for recoating ?
For stripping a 450w plus sander is a must along with branded sanding discs as cheap ones blunt very quick and fly off prematurely.
For fine sanding a lower wattage is far less aggresive and lighter.
I use my 450w for stripping and shaping, my cordless 190w for sanding in between coats trying for that mirror finish. 😎
A cheap 450w can be had for as little as £32 for a clarke.
 
I've generally considered Festool to be the best if concerned about dust, as it's a key focus of their design work. However, the pricing may not work for many, and much of my power tools are Bosch Blue.

Note that the average wet-dry vac is not really suitable for dust collection from a health standpoint. If that's all you have I'd be thinking about how to partition off the work areas and achieve better ventilation. E.g. if working in a garage on land, you'll get far better results by setting up a strong cross-breeze than with a dust extractor. For a boat I'd be thinking about how to get as much air as possible moving out the companionway or nearby hatch.
 
This winter I sanded the coppercoat on my Southerly 46RS with 80grit using a Ryobi battery powered sander and a Henry Hover, which uses HEPA.
The combination worked very well, there wasn't any discernable dust, and the Henry filled you with copper/epoxy dust which was surprisingly heavy.
I had three battery packs, 1.5amp hr. 5amp hr and 6amp hr and 2 chargers, that allowed me to work a full 8hr day, swapping the batteries as required.
At one point during the epic sanding exercise the bearing on the Ryobi failed and I had to wait for new bearing to arrive, so I bought a cheap random orbit sander from ScrewFix.
It worked OK as a sander, but a significant amount of dust escaped from the sander. The Ryobi had a much better dust capture system.

I'd echo the comments about using good sanding disks, the cheap ones clogged and disinter grated very quickly. I found that BOSCH expert and Triton worked well.
 
Having done a huge amount of sanding in the bottom of my boat this winter. It's been done 7 times in total! Mirka is excellent. We borrowed it from the yard. Our Bosch sander with a separate vacuum is crap by comparison. One of the yard workers set up on his own. He studied the best sanders and went for Makita. The Makita is superior to the already very good Mirka. If I was sanding the bottom of our boat again, I would be investing in one or the other. All other orbital sanders with a separate vacuum are a joke. Having the orbital powered from the vacuum with super long hoses and an incredibly light device is revolutionary if you need to do overhead work
 
Two things other than which is the best sander dust extraction.
Buy a disc saver, this is a sacrificial mat that goes between the sander and the sanding disc it saves wear on the sander pad which are usually expensive to replace.
If you are looking to sand veneered panels be careful, very careful or you will be through the veneer before you can say bugger! Scrapping and then a very light hand sanding with 240 followed by 400 grit is safer.
As for best mix of sander / dust collection Festool every time. Mirka has a good reputation but I have never used one, I use a Makita which is fine and self collects a surprising amount of dust in its bag filter leaving a small amount on the work piece but then I am not working inside a boat. I do have a Festool dust collector which is different than an extractor and it's excellent when paired with my Festool track saw and Domino cutter so I have no doubt it would be the same paired with a Festool orbital sander but you could be looking at €1000 for the pair.
It's been mentioned 150 mm is to big and heavy for vertical surfaces stick with 125mm diameter.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
Two things other than which is the best sander dust extraction.
Buy a disc saver, this is a sacrificial mat that goes between the sander and the sanding disc it saves wear on the sander pad which are usually expensive to replace.
If you are looking to sand veneered panels be careful, very careful or you will be through the veneer before you can say bugger! Scrapping and then a very light hand sanding with 240 followed by 400 grit is safer.
As for best mix of sander / dust collection Festool every time. Mirka has a good reputation but I have never used one, I use a Makita which is fine and self collects a surprising amount of dust in its bag filter leaving a small amount on the work piece but then I am not working inside a boat. I do have a Festool dust collector which is different than an extractor and it's excellent when paired with my Festool track saw and Domino cutter so I have no doubt it would be the same paired with a Festool orbital sander but you could be looking at €1000 for the pair.
It's been mentioned 150 mm is to big and heavy for vertical surfaces stick with 125mm diameter.
Click to expand...
The Mirka 150mm is so light compared to a conventional sanders you would be very surprised
 
geem said:
Having done a huge amount of sanding in the bottom of my boat this winter. It's been done 7 times in total! Mirka is excellent. We borrowed it from the yard. Our Bosch sander with a separate vacuum is crap by comparison. One of the yard workers set up on his own. He studied the best sanders and went for Makita. The Makita is superior to the already very good Mirka. If I was sanding the bottom of our boat again, I would be investing in one or the other. All other orbital sanders with a separate vacuum are a joke. Having the orbital powered from the vacuum with super long hoses and an incredibly light device is revolutionary if you need to do overhead work
Click to expand...
Can you remember which model you used?
 
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