Best Sanders for Furniture Refinishing - Top Picks, Reviews & Complete Buying Guide

Sanders for Furniture Refinishing: The Ultimate Buying Guide

If you still have not determined which sander for furniture refinishing project is the right for you, then we will speak more about various types of sanders and their characteristics.

You can choose among an orbital, a detail and a random orbital sander.

What should I know about Orbital sanders?

The first thing you notice when an orbital sander is in question is that it has a square or rectangular base that rotates in tiny circles.

You should attach a standard-sized square of paper to it and easily cut full sheets of sandpaper to size.

We have to mention that the orbital sanders are less aggressive, easy to handle and causing fewer problems.

What you get are the smoothest finishes.

Its square shape makes it ideal for corners and edges.

Being that it is less aggressive, it means that it cannot remove layers of finish.

What about Random orbital sanders?

The second type is the random orbital sander, which comes with a round sanding surface that moves in an ellipse.

It requires a specially-designed paper with a hook and loop system.

The ROS is great for removing thick finish layers.

The fact that it is round makes you able to move it in any direction on your wood, but you cannot do corners.

You need to have in mind that it might drag you around your project and leave gouges and marks.

If this would be your first time to work with it, we suggest practicing on scrap wood.

What is important about Detail sanders?

The detail sander, as its name suggests, it perfect for details.

The project with nooks and crannies that has to be sanded requires this kind of tool.

It is designed to use a triangular piece of sandpaper so that it can reach tiny crevices.

Some users appreciate the fact that it is less expensive, but they do not like that it is less powerful than the other sanders.

How significant are power and ergonomics when choosing one?

The power is not the most important feature when it comes to finishing sanders.

Actually, as you will be doing your furniture refinishing, you need a lot of control and finesse, and that cannot be done with a great power motor.

Furthermore, you will be working with it in your hand and holding it for quite some time, so less vibration is definitely considered more comfortable.

Avoiding extra vibration improves the comfort, but finding the tool that fits naturally in your hand is worth every penny.

If you can go to your tool supplier and hold some of these in your own hand before buying one would be ideal as you will be able to feel whether it is comfortable or not.

Dust collection

The sanding is followed by sawdust everywhere.

Sanders usually come with little onboard bags to collect dust.

This is not enough for larger tasks, so some more advanced models allow you to hook up a hose between the sander and your shop vac, thus collecting the dust more effectively.

Conclusion

All in all, we have gone through many models and determined that the Makita BO4556K is our Top Pick, being that it produces the fastest, smoothest finish and is the most comfortable to work with.

For those people who want to spend less, the Black & Decker BDEMS600 Detail Sander is an affordable option which is capable of the tiny-space work at 16,000 OPMs.

We are sure that now you can identify what the best tool for your job is.

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