DA Sanders. dual action or random orbital?

[justasquid]

well, I have a delima. My trusty old DA sander has given out on me. I pulled it apart to clean it and see if was salvagable, but its toast. Its really worn out.

My question is this. I was thinking about saving on my air compressor. It keeps up, but it is running a lot while Im using a da sander. Since I have to replace it anyway, I was thinking about going another route. Does anyone make a good electric one? I see them at lowes or home depot, but they are randon orbital. Is that the same thing?

I dont want to buy something thats not going to work. I can buy an air one and not worry about it, but it would be nice to not have to use the compressor. I live in town and the less noise I make, the better.

[BMF Machine]

I used to use an old crappy air compressor and it would not keep up with any DA. Now I have a 7.5 HP 80 gallon 170PSI 27 CFM WickeD aircompressor. It is a lot quieter than a diaphram compressor and a Da does not PhasE it. I can be running both my CnC's and a DA with absolutely No ProblemS.

I have never seen a decent electric da or buffer. GoT to have air and enough of it. IMO:)

[mikey]

Ditto on a electric sander. Get a Dynabrade if you get a finsh sander. They're super smooth and light weight. Hutchins is nice also but they weigh quite a bit more.

[JRouche]

The expensive (porter cable, bosch) RO electric sanders will work fine. The inexpensive RO sanders (harbor freight, sears, roybi) work justs as great. Mine are a variable speed (bosch and PC) and I can load it up with any grit from 80 on up. I have a nice IR air DA sander and it sits while I use my porter. My DA sander will have a higher spin where the electric PC will have more of both spin and back and forth movement. I can control the spin speed more with the electric than the air DA sander.

Just as with the air DA sanders, you dont want to dwell on a panel. And you want to make sure the sander pad is spinning along with the back and forth motion. You can stall the spin on both electric and air units, you dont want that. And you dont want a too fast of a spin either. Its about controlling the disc movement. An equal amount of spin to back and forth (orbital) sanding.

And just for some info. The Da has a much larger swing on it for the orbital action. But they both work on the same principle. JR