# Questions About Electric Sanders...



## Mozart (Oct 16, 2010)

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum. Nice to see there's actually a forum dedicated to drywall related business only

I've been doing quite a bit of drywall hanging recently & as you can guess, I'm sick of sanding. I'm sick of my arms feeling like they're going to fall off. I'm sick of looking like a ghost when covered in drywall dust & I'm sick of cleaning up

My question is this, does anyone use an electric sander, & how do they perform? Do they actually feather properly? What about trouble spots where there's a "bow" that needs to be a tad higher in the middle? Just need some info on the quality of the finished product from those of you who use them

Thanks in advance


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## Checkers (Jun 25, 2010)

I've never used one but a good buddy does, he just says you have to move hella fast with it or it digs. I've been considering buying one myself!


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## Mozart (Oct 16, 2010)

Yeah, I'm considering buying one too, but they're expensive & I'm trying to find out if they're worth it

I'm not hanging a lot of new or newer construction. My jobs usually are in old homes & buildings built from the 1920's to about the 80's, so they're not simple "everything is flush" jobs. The studs & joists on many jobs are out of whack due to age, not too mention the pipes that stick out, etc. I'm always leveling things off with mud so there's a lot of high & low spots which have to be sanded properly in order for them not to show

I'm assuming electric sanders simply follow the contour of the wall/mud & sand according to height, meaning whatever sticks out higher gets sanded down. So it must be controlled by pressing down harder & easing up in order to leave some area's higher & feather other area's

So again, I guess my question is, can you truly control the sander for the absolute desired effect without having to hand sand it over for the finish effect?


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Have a search on this forum dude, porter cable, power sanders, etc, you will find some info, I have been using them for years, that hand sanding nonsence was for 1962, its 2010 now, they do take some getting the hang of a bit, hook one to a vacumm and its a cleaner place to be, I run a flex giraffe on a festool vacumm then give it a swipe over with the radius 360 to unsure no machine marks , But we all different and get off on different ways of sanding, Welcome.


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## suncoast drywaller (Sep 4, 2009)

cazna said:


> Have a search on this forum dude, porter cable, power sanders, etc, you will find some info, I have been using them for years, that hand sanding nonsence was for 1962, its 2010 now, they do take some getting the hang of a bit, hook one to a vacumm and its a cleaner place to be, I run a flex giraffe on a festool vacumm then give it a swipe over with the radius 360 to unsure no machine marks , But we all different and get off on different ways of sanding, Welcome.


In my area the giraffe sander is the industry standard way to finish all walls and ceilings . I myself have had one for many years . they certainly do a better job . quicker almost no dust and far easier . I would never go back to sanding by hand
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1.03.01


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## dieselman350 (Aug 21, 2012)

A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


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## moore (Dec 2, 2010)

dieselman350 said:


> A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


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## sdrdrywall (Sep 4, 2010)

dieselman350 said:


> A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


Oooh you gooooood :jester:


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## drywall guy158 (Dec 31, 2009)

dieselman350 said:


> A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


:thumbsup:


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## Bazooka-Joe (Dec 31, 2010)

moore said:


> MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This - YouTube


wonder if they got a Mexican version of that?:jester:


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## bluelineman (Aug 28, 2012)

yeah i have a flex sander its is amazing, if you time it right and know how you sand its the best thing for sanding , i would never go hand sanding unless its a small job. i use sheetrock grey lid lite or proroc lite , it leaves abit of scuff marks but i use the 360 radius on it. you can adjust the speeed of the sander and it doesnt dig in that much unless you push so hard.


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## dieselman350 (Aug 21, 2012)

Sanding pole and sponge for me power sanding is for the new guys


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## sdrdrywall (Sep 4, 2010)

dieselman350 said:


> Sanding pole and sponge for me power sanding is for the new guys


Sometimes i just don't know what to say about peoples arrogance. Completly close minded. Yup 20 years what a newbie i am.:furious:


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

dieselman350 said:


> A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


 
LOL at this guy :laughing:. I hope you are joking and are trying to get a rise out of us, because that is the quote of the year.


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

dieselman350 said:


> Sanding pole and sponge for me power sanding is for the new guys


Like guys who only have 11 posts?



sdrdrywall said:


> Sometimes i just don't know what to say about peoples arrogance. Completly close minded. Yup 20 years what a newbie i am.:furious:


Pretty much.
I can be pretty ignorant sometimes, but I don't call others out on it. lol.
But keep in mind I've pretty much also tried every taping system under the sun. I work the way I do because it works for me. Doesn't mean it will for others.
If I don't do something, it's because I've tried it and it doesn't work for me. And if it's because I'm not familiar with the system or need more experience, I won't bash the product. I'll keep working with it when I have more time until I gain my experience needed.
Same goes with sanding. I have a porter cable, I don't use it as often as I should, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I try to do everything and learn new things constantly.


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

We gotta take it easy on him though, he is also a framer and a painter :whistling2:


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

thefinisher said:


> We gotta take it easy on him though, he is also a framer and a painter :whistling2:


But apparently not a taper :laughing:
Maybe that's why, he doesn't sand much :jester:


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

But he is a "diesel man" possibly benches "350" so he is like the terminator of hand sanding


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

thefinisher said:


> But he is a "diesel man" possibly benches "350" so he is like the terminator of hand sanding


I would guess it's because he drives a Diesel F-350.
To compensate for the fact that he can't bench press anything :laughing::jester:


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

PrecisionTaping said:


> I would guess it's because he drives a Diesel F-350.
> To compensate for the fact that he can't bench press anything :laughing::jester:


Well if that is the case then he has a good taste in diesels :thumbup:


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## dieselman350 (Aug 21, 2012)

I do have a porter cable dont like it we finish more then we do anything and ive seen generals that will not let let them on the job ive seen decent sanding jobs with them and ive seen people completely ruin jobs with them things happen differently in different areas to each his own :thumbsup:


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## dieselman350 (Aug 21, 2012)

I do have a porter cable dont like it we finish more then we do anything and ive seen generals that will not let let them on the job ive seen decent sanding jobs with them and ive seen people completely ruin jobs with them things happen differently in different areas to each his own :thumbsup:


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

dieselman350 said:


> I do have a porter cable dont like it we finish more then we do anything and ive seen generals that will not let let them on the job ive seen decent sanding jobs with them and ive seen people completely ruin jobs with them things happen differently in different areas to each his own :thumbsup:


 
Yes the machine can ruin the work if run improperly. But when you learn how to use it, the final product will come out better and you will have saved a ton of time.


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## saskataper (Mar 6, 2011)

I'm just starting to get the hang of my PC and contrary to a previous comment I think where it really shines is sanding a really good finishing job. When you start to try and sand out mistakes is where things can go really wrong, when the joints are all very consistent the sander works really well.

I really want to try out the Festool planex, it looks like a superior tool.




but for 2K I would have to be sure I could sand all my jobs with it.


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

saskataper said:


> I'm just starting to get the hang of my PC and contrary to a previous comment I think where it really shines is sanding a really good finishing job. When you start to try and sand out mistakes is where things can go really wrong, when the joints are all very consistent the sander works really well.
> 
> I really want to try out the Festool planex, it looks like a superior tool.
> but for 2K I would have to be sure I could sand all my jobs with it.


That's a terrible youtube video of it. lol.
Watch this one. More modern


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## Bazooka-Joe (Dec 31, 2010)

PrecisionTaping said:


> That's a terrible youtube video of it. lol.
> Watch this one. More modern
> Festool PLANEX Drywall Sander - YouTube


what ya think Moosey







quite the sh%ty tape job


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## gazman (Apr 29, 2011)

saskataper said:


> I'm just starting to get the hang of my PC and contrary to a previous comment I think where it really shines is sanding a really good finishing job. When you start to try and sand out mistakes is where things can go really wrong, when the joints are all very consistent the sander works really well.



We have been finish sanding with the PC for many years. I would not be without it. These pics are of a joint before sanding and after being hit with the PC. The after pic has not been hit with a pole but is done with a PC ONLY.:yes:


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

^^^ thats exactly how ours looks :thumbup:


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

dieselman350 said:


> A power sander will never touch my work they are heavy and useless and who has that much mud to sand off anyway


It's not always about having that much mud to sand off. It can also be about getting off faster what you do have to get off.


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

PrecisionTaping said:


> That's a terrible youtube video of it. lol.
> Watch this one. More modern
> Festool PLANEX Drywall Sander - YouTube


Is that an official Planex video, put out by them?


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

Bazooka-Joe said:


> what ya think Moosey
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hahaha! Ya it's a terrible tape job, some of the joints don't even make sense where they are.
But that's what happens when you spend 10grand and hire a production company to make you a promotional video. 
They hire paid actors and build fake construction sets to film the video.
That guy's probably never actually taped in his life.



JustMe said:


> Is that an official Planex video, put out by them?


And ya, that's the official Festool YouTube channel. They have allot of videos on their site.


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

PrecisionTaping said:


> And ya, that's the official Festool YouTube channel. They have allot of videos on their site.


A bit hard to believe they'd use it. That one makes them look a lot less than professional.

And that machine looks more complex, complicated, than it really needs to be. Guessing they're selling using 'bling', also(?)


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

JustMe said:


> And that machine looks more complex, complicated, than it really needs to be. Guessing they're selling using 'bling', also(?)


Or do all the bells and whistles on there really make a difference?


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

JustMe said:


> A bit hard to believe they'd use it. That one makes them look a lot less than professional.
> 
> And that machine looks more complex, complicated, than it really needs to be. Guessing they're selling using 'bling', also(?)


Personally I think that video was amazing!
The cinematography was great and they had great depth of field in the shots and the music was well balanced and timed with the scenes.
I think it show cased and highlighted allot of the tools features in a short period of time. 
It's truthfully very hard to create a short promotional video within the time frame which they did.
That was one of the things I struggled with when creating the Hardened by Columbia video for WallTools.
Keeping it short,simple and to the point. It was still 3minutes and 9seconds.

So over all I really enjoyed that video by festool, it's sort of what I modelled my hardened video around. I tried to go for a similar feel.

Their drywalling & taping job was ridiculous! It actually made no sense...
It was all stand ups, yet they had flats every 2 feet instead of 4. haha!
So it's like they were using 2ft wide sheets of drywall. :blink:
But over all, very informative, especially for those not familiar with the product.


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## Square Foot (Jul 1, 2012)

"Their drywalling & taping job was ridiculous! It actually made no sense...
It was all stand ups, yet they had flats every 2 feet instead of 4. haha!
So it's like they were using 2ft wide sheets of drywall."

Maybe they used shaft-wall core-board for the demonstration?


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

Square Foot said:


> "Their drywalling & taping job was ridiculous! It actually made no sense...
> It was all stand ups, yet they had flats every 2 feet instead of 4. haha!
> So it's like they were using 2ft wide sheets of drywall."
> 
> Maybe they used shaft-wall core-board for the demonstration?


Seems a little excessive but you're probably right. I don't know why they would do that though.


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## Bazooka-Joe (Dec 31, 2010)

PrecisionTaping said:


> Hahaha! Ya it's a terrible tape job, some of the joints don't even make sense where they are.
> But that's what happens when you spend 10grand and hire a production company to make you a promotional video.
> They hire paid actors and build fake construction sets to film the video.
> That guy's probably never actually taped in his life.
> ...



not so sure about that Moosey, the Vario Girrafe is a sh*t tape video also, 
then they switched to showing how it works on a painted wall for a vid, Maybe you should Tape up a Vid for them and get free sander, give me a cut for the Idea:yes:


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## JustMe (Apr 17, 2009)

PrecisionTaping said:


> So over all I really enjoyed that video by festool, it's sort of what I modelled my hardened video around. I tried to go for a similar feel.


The music mesmerized you.


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## PrecisionTaping (Feb 2, 2012)

Bazooka-Joe said:


> not so sure about that Moosey, the Vario Girrafe is a sh*t tape video also,
> then they switched to showing how it works on a painted wall for a vid, Maybe you should Tape up a Vid for them and get free sander, give me a cut for the Idea:yes:


Wow! ya...you're right..their video totally does suck..
Just youtube'd it and it's pretty bad..started off okay then just turned to crap for the last minute.
Just a still photo with the features being listed...so boring..lol



JustMe said:


> The music mesmerized you.


lol! Yes it did! I'm a sucker for music.
I find it adds allot to the production value.


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## gazman (Apr 29, 2011)

Sometimes you just have to bust out the hand sander. What you cant see in the vid is the water all over the ground under the scaffold.


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## DLSdrywall (May 22, 2012)

If there is anyone who has used/owned a festool Is there really a $1000 difference?


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