# Porter Cable sanders



## endo_alley_revisited (Aug 9, 2016)

A while back I bought a couple of Porter Cable disk sanders with Dewalt Hepa rated vacuum units. The guys I work with are having nothing but trouble with them. We do a lot of level 5 finish work. The preferred method of sanding is with Black Widow pole sanders and fine green sanding blocks for the detail work. We then use dry mops to remove the dust. And then lightly wet sponge any furred paper. We don't seem to be able to get the same quality of work from the Porter Cable sanders as we get by hand. The sanded flat work is plagued by half moons and swirls in the sanded finish from the spinning disks. To where most guys refuse to use the Porter Cable sanders. We are using 220 grit Joest abrasives yellow sanding disks. Is it just an inferior product when you use a power sander? Or are there any tricks that help them do a better job. We check all of our work with 500 watt halogens, or equivalent LED lights to look for imperfections. And with the Porter Cable disks, there seem to be plenty of imperfections which need further touch up.


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

Most yellow discs has holes to the edges, These can srcatch so you can get yellow discs with hole but none around the edges so they dont scratch as much. Also abronet fine mesh dics, Blunt those off on the board first then they sand a lot better, You can slow the sander right back and kinda just polish stuff up then but i think those porter cables have design faults.

Which is like my old flex giraffe set up, What they are is a flat thin fibre glass disc, then a seperate foam backer pad your sanding disc sticks to, Well, that thin fibre glass disc buckles causing the whole thing to spin un evenly and those thin fibreglass discs have very little centre thread to actually hold them on which also cause buckling,
They really are old design, Notice when you put them on the wall they kinda shudder then maybe settle down, Buckled disc makes great sander marks.

I got a new disc for mine and backer pad, cost $200, guess what, still slight buckle, I even heated them in oven and then put it between two boards weighted down for a week, Still buckled.

So now you have two choices and one action to take, First action, throw the stupied old thing as far and hard as you can up the rd, Then hire a road roller and run the peices of crap over as many times as you can laughing proudy as you go becouse your about to move on from that junk. 

Now you can either go spend a lot on a festool, Which heads are set up different, They spin flat, Work much better, Or you start looking at the cheap knock of sanders, Yes you heard right, Those have a plastic disc with foam attached, One peice and its not buckled, Here we have so many different types to choose from its amazing, And they come in shorty versions, $300 i got one for and its just fantastic, Sands great, no swirls nothing, Spins flat like the festools but i could buy 10 of these for one festool.

But for fine skimming and level 5 im still going to light check and touch up sand just in case.


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## thefinisher (Sep 2, 2011)

Really need a ton of run time to master the PC. My Sanders sand about 1500 sheets a week and they are very good. They have sanded level 5 work for me and did a good job but even they go back over it with a light and pole sander. Don't care what sander you use, a level 5 finish still needs to be done by hand afterwards.


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## Cletus (Jan 15, 2017)

When i lvl 5 a wall or ceiling i will brush down the wall with sander, then do the entire skim of the wall. I will roll with 18" and wipe with 20" blade...always keeping a good speed, always keeping a wet edge..not much to sand after that. I just brush down around the outside edge...and never put a disk sander on it!


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## Cletus (Jan 15, 2017)

...but talking about swirl marks! The "old porter cable pads" I remember were slightly turned down some years ago..I got my first one in 1996, but remember they were made with the outside edge curved away from the wall...something i still do to this day is take the grit off the outside edge about 1"...this make for a little buffer zone that does not dig in


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

True that when you roll and skim cletus, Just a pole or hand sand to finish, Works well dosnt it.

Sometimes i skim rough old walls so more of a heavy hand skims needed then so out comes the sander, Often over looked are the smaller hand power sanders on vacs, Festools and good, Seen a clip of another not long ago, Look real nice.

Good idea about taking off the grit around the disc edge, Whats your method for that? I guess just turn on the sander and hold some sandpaper half an inch off the edge would buff it back.


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## Cletus (Jan 15, 2017)

cazna said:


> True that when you roll and skim cletus, Just a pole or hand sand to finish, Works well dosnt it.
> 
> Sometimes i skim rough old walls so more of a heavy hand skims needed then so out comes the sander, Often over looked are the smaller hand power sanders on vacs, Festools and good, Seen a clip of another not long ago, Look real nice.
> 
> Good idea about taking off the grit around the disc edge, Whats your method for that? I guess just turn on the sander and hold some sandpaper half an inch off the edge would buff it back.


Yes. turn on, flip around in a corner, and take lower grit paper and hold on the edge..take it down to smooth


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## endo_alley_revisited (Aug 9, 2016)

We have noticed that it works best to sand in arcs across the bands. Not parallel to the bands and butts. And to change directions out on the paper. Not over the heavy mud. I will try softening the edges of the sanding disks. That makes good sense. Maybe go over the entire disk with some 80 grit. There has to be a method that works well most of the time.


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## Cletus (Jan 15, 2017)

endo_alley_revisited said:


> We have noticed that it works best to sand in arcs across the bands. Not parallel to the bands and butts. And to change directions out on the paper. Not over the heavy mud. I will try softening the edges of the sanding disks. That makes good sense. Maybe go over the entire disk with some 80 grit. There has to be a method that works well most of the time.



I like to sand the "high" part of the joint last...go low to high. If you sand the low part last...the pad will cut into the high part of the mud:thumbup:


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## sandman (Oct 25, 2010)

*Interesting*



cazna said:


> Most yellow discs has holes to the edges, These can srcatch so you can get yellow discs with hole but none around the edges so they dont scratch as much. Also abronet fine mesh dics, Blunt those off on the board first then they sand a lot better, You can slow the sander right back and kinda just polish stuff up then but i think those porter cables have design faults.
> 
> Which is like my old flex giraffe set up, What they are is a flat thin fibre glass disc, then a seperate foam backer pad your sanding disc sticks to, Well, that thin fibre glass disc buckles causing the whole thing to spin un evenly and those thin fibreglass discs have very little centre thread to actually hold them on which also cause buckling,
> They really are old design, Notice when you put them on the wall they kinda shudder then maybe settle down, Buckled disc makes great sander marks.
> ...





After several tests and improvements, Jost superpads are available in 600, 1200 and 1800 foam backed material. Additionally, we have added the Festool/Flex hole pattern to the Supergrit discs to maximize airflow of sanding dust and prevent loading. We feel confident we can address any sand scratch issues. PM me if you are interested in purchasing these innovative new products.


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## cazna (Mar 28, 2010)

sandman said:


> After several tests and improvements, Jost superpads are available in 600, 1200 and 1800 foam backed material. Additionally, we have added the Festool/Flex hole pattern to the Supergrit discs to maximize airflow of sanding dust and prevent loading. We feel confident we can address any sand scratch issues. PM me if you are interested in purchasing these innovative new products.


 Hi Sandman, You sent me some to try, But 1800g is so fine its unusable. Even 600g is, Make them in a 200g then they will be useful to drywallers.


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## OtherbrotherMoore (May 25, 2017)

the softback screw on backing pad is the answer if not allready said, professor Gazman 

and his sawed off shotgun aussie drywall sander is the answer


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