Tools!

[Diesel Dan]

Let's talk tools. We all love our tools. Anyone who converts a bus into an RV has at least an appreciation for tools.

There was some discussion on another thread about brands, and as I remember Dewalt and Milwaukie came out as a good bang for the buck in terms of quality vs. price.

I always seem to be buying tools. I recently got a framing nailer from Harbor Freight (yes, I know their stuff is... well... hit or miss) and it has been such a blessing on this garage remodel job I'm doing at the house. I've had good luck with their pneumatic tools so far, but I don't use them every day.

I have an older set of 12v battery powered tools from Rockwell. The batteries SUCK. They have a lifetime replacement warranty, so every time they die, I return them for a free replacement. But they die prematurely, and now they've made it more difficult to exchange for new. I've been without my battery powered tools for a couple months now. But to buy good batteries is expensive, and 12v is kinda lame at this point, since the standard is now 18v and 20v. It would probably make sense to just bite the bullet and upgrade now. But it costs so much to get a set of these things and a couple batteries! Dang!

Okay, so I do have a question for the group. I have a couple orbital sanders, three actually, 2 electric and 1 pneumatic. The air sander is awesome for really tearing into something in short order. I'm really not happy with the electric sanders I have. So what I'm looking for now is a palm sander of some kind that is good quality but not necessarily professional grade. I'm talking maybe Dewalt level of quality. I want to be able to use it for sanding, for instance a sheet of cabinet grade plywood that I plan to use as an easy to make table top. And I will likely make the base of this table out of 2x4 pine that I will sand and stain. So I'm basically trying to make a presentable looking piece of furniture out of cheap materials, and there will be a lot of sanding involved. It's okay with me if things are a bit "rustic" . My air sander is pretty good for shaping, but I need a good finish sander. So given this type of application, what models of sanders would y'all recommend. I'm open to using either electric or air powered, but honestly, I find that electric tools are more convenient to use. At this point I've decided that air tools are really only something I use when the electric version of that tool just doesn't cut it.

[Accordion]

Dan, I used this sander when I worked with solid surface materials. In my opinion, it is the best. It is lightweight, and can be used all day long. It is also the sander that I used for all the wood work in my bus.

The discs can be found at Lowe's, Home Depot, Menard's,etc.

I used 180 grit first, and then 400 grit to give a very nice finish that will provide an ultra smooth surface that when you either paint of polyurethane, will be smooth as glass.

My sanding process was to go left to right from the top, and right to left overlapping a little bit. Then I would go up and down. Lastly, I would do diagonal one way (/) and then the other way. It is a four step sanding process with each grit, the 180 and 400, that will provide you with the ultimate smooth surface.

Go slowly so that every molecule of the wood is sanded equally.

I like the model that uses sticky discs instead of the velcro type.

Here is some info.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Por ... tedIndex=0




Here is a table that I made.The rounded edge of the table was formed by using a router, then after doing the sanding process, I used a polisher with two different grades of rouge. And yes, I incorporated LED rope lights into the table.




A countertop that I made. I made a jig to route out the keyboard. I used translucent material and filled in the spaces with black solid surface glue for the black keys. Again, I used LED ropelight.