Enrico Konig
Posts: 74
Joined: 2006-01-06
Location: Vancouver, BC
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Mike,
I use a 6" soft pad on my Festool random orbit sander for both convex and concave curves. Until I got this setup, I did all my sanding by hand, mainly because I find the commonly available 5" random orbitals (deWalt, PorterCable etc) too slow. Also no soft pads available. The Festool 6" is much more aggressive and faster and in combo with the Festool vacuum leaves absolutely no dust (don't even need to wear a mask).
The real trick for me, though, is to do my curves oversize, because of course sanding through on edges - particularly on the outer edges of an inside curve - will happen when using an orbital sander! So I do the majority of my sanding with 120 grit before I cut things to final size. My final sanding with 180 is then done by hand after piece is sized and otherwise finished. Orbital will leave some orbital marks on the inside curves that will need to be removed.
I do 2-ply all the time but find the 2-ply quite tricky to handle as it gets quite brittle and always wants to roll up. Quite easy to crack if one is not careful with it. And sometimes its power to curl is stronger than the tape to hold it flat. So I haven't had much luck sanding the veneer before pressing. But once outfitting myself with the 6" Festool and the soft pad I no longer find it necessary anyhow. (BTW, the 5" Festool is not really much better than less expensive brands, so go with the 6 inch.
Enrico
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