Pneumatic palm sanders: What brands, size and orbit works best?

[kraftformer]

A classmate at tech school has the Dynabrade 59040 6". It has the 3/32nd orbit. I tried it out today to scuff up the clear coat on a car roof, with a sponge backing pad and 320 grit. Pretty nice tool.

Looking for a top notch random orbit palm sander for wet sanding clear with 2000, 1500 and 1000 grit . Would also like the same sander to work well for scuffing up clear coat and basecoat. College shop has a 3M 6" Dual Action, which is also nice but has more vibration than the Dynabrade.

What's the difference between Dual Action and Random Orbit? I have read some folks say they are the same and another person say they aren't. For my requirements, which is preferable?

What's the difference between the Dynaorbital Extreme X62 and the 59040 Dynaorbital Spirit ? Both are 6" and 3/32nd orbit.

x62 Extreme
https://www17.dynabrade.com/view-product.php?mn=X62

59040 Spirit
https://www17.dynabrade.com/view-product.php?mn=59040


Anyone have expereince with Nitto Kohki and Shinano (Japanese) , and Swiss brand Suhner? They make 6" random orbit palm sanders.

 

[Jim C]

you dont want a 3/32 orbit. they are a total waste of time and will take you forever to get anywhere. the std orbit size is 3/16. thats what most orbitals are. the 3/32 is a specialty orbit that they say is for color sanding clear but there is absolutely no advantage to this size. what it does is cut extremely slow so for someone that doesnt have experience with an orbital making less chance of burning through. 3/16 is great for general sanding as well as color sanding clear. the 3m you used is 3/16 which is why it had slightly more vibration. a 3/16 dynabrade will be the same way. i have had 3-3m's that i use daily for 10 years now. i have also had dynabrades for even longer. you cant go wrong with either one.

dual action sanders were originally ones that you could change from orbital then also lock it so it would just spin like a grinder. these days though the orbital sanders like the 3m and dynabrades are also referred to as a da or dual action because the pads spins while it orbits. it does both at the same time hence the dual action name