03-06-2007, 02:18 PM
Maengelito Wrote:well, not necessarily car bodies, but i'd like to have a power sander in general for wood work, maybe some metal, maybe sanding car parts, etc. and then i'd also like to have a polisher for waxing and buffing car bodies, yes. so would i need a variable speed one that dips down to 1k rpms and has a higher end like 5k rpms?
I would not use the same tool for woodworking that I use for polishing. To much of a chance for sawdust to fall off the buffer and get under the pad and act like little grinding wheels. In fact I wouldn't even keep your buffer anywhere near where you work on the car. Get an good orbital buffer, then if you want to do wood work you don't need an orbital for that, just a plain hand or belt sander depending on how large of an area you need to sand.
For car bodies you need a low RPM orbital sander that you can use the stick on pads with (NOT GLUE ON!!!, such a PITA). A high speed sander on a car body will just warp the panel, the sheet metal these days is just to thin. For anything but a complete tear down to bare metal you are better off with a good block sanding kit though as you usually don't want to strip all the original paint off. An orbital sander will eat right through car paint in a matter of seconds, you have to be REALLY good to use them correctly. Personally I won't touch one when doing body work, it takes more time to fix the 1 or 2 fuckups than it would just sanding it by hand.