Sanding is the perfect method to make a surface smoother, polished and mirror-like fine. It is very essential for woodworking, metal working and other DIY projects. Knowing the types of sanding tools and their uses is great way give a final finish to your projects.
There have varieties of sanding tools for different using purpose. Each tools have unique features and conveniences. Various sending tools can make the sending process simple and perfect.
In this guide, we will discuss about a details of sanding tools and their specific use for individual task. So, let’s start to read next
Types Of sanding Tools
Here sanding tools refer to things related to a complete sanding process. Knowing their definition will clarify your idea about sanding-related equipment.
Sander
Sander is a power-driven tool that works to smoother metal, wooden or plastic surfaces. These tools have an abrasive disc that can remove uneven components, rust and paint from the surface. This makes it possible to give a final smooth finish to a surface quickly.
Sanding Block
A sanding block is a wood or cork-made peace with a flat side. It holds the sandpaper in its form. A sanding block can create even pressure through the surface. When you want efficient and faster hand sanding, the sanding block is a great tool.
Sandpaper
Sandpaper is a thick type of paper with an abrasive surface. It is used to make wooden surfaces smoother and remove loose girt paint. Sandpaper has a rough coating of sand which is great for smoothing and polishing a surface.
Dust Collector
A dust collector works to easily grab and remove dust, dirt, and harmful particles during sanding. Although it is not directly related to the sanding process, yet considered a sanding tool.
Types Of Sander & their Uses
We know that a sander is a power-operated tool for sanding on metal and other surfaces. There have different kinds of sander available in the market. These are different due to their unique features and use purposes.
Belt Sander
A belt sander is designed to give you a perfect finishing and shaping for wooden and metal surfaces. A belt sander is unique to a regular sander due to its quick strip-down performance.
Uses of belt sander:
- It works excellently to repair small amendments like filling up the thickness and adjusting the angle.
- A belt sander makes unusual angles on small pieces and gives a preferred shape.
- Smoothing rough cuts, concretes, and refinishing decks and furniture.
Random Orbital Sander
It is a handheld power sanding tool that randomly acts on a surface. Its action is including with irregular overlapping circles.
Uses of a random orbital sander:
- A random orbital sander is used for ultra-smooth sanding with tiny random circles action.
- It is great to polish a surface before and after painting
- Works great to restore the transparency of headlight and painting
Palm Sander/sheet sander
A palm sander is also a handheld power-operated sander. It rotates rapidly in an elliptical circle at the back and forth to sand a surface. A palm sander is good for sanding on specific smaller surfaces.
Uses of palm sander:
- It is recognized to sand accurately on smaller woodworking pieces
- Convenient to use inside corners of furniture or objects for sanding
- Works well to fill small imperfections in wooden surfaces
File Sander
File sander is a unique sander power tool that can sand several hard-to-reach spaces where another sander can’t reach. They have become popular sanders for sand-tight areas.
Uses of file sander:
- The cordless and corded file sander can sand specific tight space
- Used to sand between timber slats and remove rust from fence rails
- Helpful to know the auto body detailing of a wooden or metal furniture
Drum Sander
A drum sander is a large power-driven sanding tool. It can sand an object in a cylindrical rotating drum system. It works slightly like a belt sander.
The uses of drum sander:
- It is used in industry or woodworking shops to sand multiple projects
- A drum sander can sand larger wooden pieces and multiple pieces of wood.
- It is used for DIY enthusiasts to make a smoother finish
Edging Sander
An edging sander is made to sand wooden floors. It is a brilliant way to beautify a wooden floor with sanding. The edging power tool provides rapid sanding to give hard and soft wooden floors a score-free finish.
Uses of edging sander:
- Good to sand on a wide range of wooden surfaces like decks, fiber board, hard wooden floors and parquet
- It works excellent for rapid and precise labelling on wood floors.
Drywall Sander
Drywall Sandar is a very effective tool for smoothing the walls and ceilings of the house before preparing them for plastering and painting.
Uses of drywall sander:
- It is used on plastered brick walls to make it smoother so that the painting will be precise.
- Drywall is also used in different wooden surface sanding.
Manual Sander
A manual sander is a handheld device to make a surface smoother. It has a heavy, abrasive-coated sandpaper sheet attached to it.
The uses of manual sander:
- It is used for sanding a flat surface
- The large abrasive surface is used for time-saving sanding
- It is used in varieties of surfaces like wood, fibreglass, plasterboard and metal
Types Of Sandpaper & their Uses
Sandpaper is a paper that is made with abrasive particles on the surface. These are used to make the surface smoother. The sandpaper works to remove a layer of paint, rough things or uneven particles from the surface. Let’s know different types of sandpaper with their uses.
Regular Or Sheet Sandpaper
Sheet sandpaper is sanding paper made of different grit sizes on paper or cloth. The grit size of regular or sheet sandpaper is (40 (coarse), 80, 150, 240, and 600 (fine))
Uses of sheet sandpaper:
- These are used to remove rust from tools and equipment
- Helpful to increase the traction of new shoes
- Used to sharpen sewing needle
- Give a final smoother finish to a woodworking project
- Remove stains and scuffs from the suede
Orbital Sandpaper
Orbital sandpaper is a circle-shaped paper with abrasive particles.
These are generally used with the orbital sander power tool. Many orbital sanding discs are available as a package attached to the orbital tool.
Uses of orbital sandpaper:
- The orbital sandpaper is used for ultra-smooth sanding with tiny random circles action.
- Orbital sandpaper is specially used to remove older paint to make a smooth surface.
- These types of sandpaper are easy to restore the transparency of the headlight.
Liquid Sandpaper
Liquid sandpaper is also known as diglossia. It is a chemical-based sandpaper-like material that removes the gloss from the surface and makes the surface rough.
Uses of liquid sandpaper:
- Deglosser removes grease, varnish and grime from old paint and wooden surface.
- These are the best sanding way to remove paint and rust from the surface.
- Excellent to reach and remove material from intricate curves of furniture interior where the traditional sandpaper can’t reach.
Last Words
We would like to know the types of sanding tools and their uses. There have two kinds of sanding tools power sanding and manual sanding. The power sanding tools include with orbital sander, belt sander, edging sander, drywall sander, drum sander and more.
On the other hand, manual sanding includes different types of sandpaper. Regular sandpaper, sheet, orbital and liquid sandpaper are common manual sanding methods. Each sanding tool has its uses and conveniences. We have already mentioned that.
I am Imtiaj Islam. I am a wood working enthusiast, having 6 years of experience in carpentry work. I have a BBA graduate degree from Chittagong College. I got vocational training on wood works from Korean Polytechnic out of the quest and zest he has for carpentry as well. I take several wood projects and keep testing different woodworking tools for comfortable and perfect work. I just love playing with woods and machines.