The Advantages of Orbital Sanders for Woodturners

After spending time turning and shaving a wooden piece, there will come the point when you need to polish the surface. Sanding your wood is generally the final step where you put the finishing touches on the piece, but there are still ways to mess up and scuff the wood. The polishing process is a necessary step in the woodturning process, and knowing the advantages of orbital sanders for woodturners makes the procedure that much easier.

Eliminates Sanding Mistakes

The most significant benefit of an orbital sander is that it compensates for potential sanding mistakes. When working with other sanding machines or sanding by hand, it’s common for cross-grain scratches and swirl marks to appear, ruining the aesthetics of the piece. These imperfections result in greater sanding times to cover up the previous mistakes.

Because the orbital sander moves in an elliptical motion as well as spins, it creates even, smooth sanding throughout the piece you work on. This eliminates the potential of cross-grain scratches and scuffs. This makes for a more aesthetically pleasing end product, and it gets rid of much of the hassle of needing to sand over the wood again.

Adjustable Speeds

Sometimes, when you know what you’re doing with your sanding techniques, you want a faster speed to get the job done. The more RPMs you get out of your orbital sander, the more wood it shaves off. Orbital sanders come with various speed settings, allowing woodturners to work as slowly or as quickly as they want.

Veteran turners who know what they’re doing can crank up the speeds to finish a project as quickly as possible. Conversely, newer turners who want to take their time and learn the technique can slow down the sander to a speed they’re comfortable with. The different speeds also help when you don’t want to sand off too much material; this usually comes in handy when turners already spent time sanding at higher speeds.

Perfect Your Sanding Technique

The benefits orbital sanders bring to woodturners make all the difference, whether it’s increasing working speed or eliminating mistakes. Make sure to pick up a variable speed orbital sander to get your project going and ensure you have the best tools available.