SMOOTH SPINNING ELECTRIC SANDERS
Putting power behind sandpaper, electric sanders use a motor to rapidly expose a surface with abrasive force. First seen in the early 1900s, electric sanders made short work of stripping furniture paint, rounding metal edges and smoothing surfaces. There are typically two main types of sanders. A belt sander uses a drum wrapped in sandpaper, while an orbital sander requires an abrasive disc, held horizontally on a metal plate for circular sanding.
Although they might appear different, they both rely on the same process of abrasion. When a sanding disc rubs against the surface of another material, such as wood, the hard grains of rock on the surface of the disc penetrate the surface of the wood, producing microscopic grooves as they go. The particles of wood that have been excavated from these grooves fly away and layers of the wood are removed, leaving an even surface behind.
The scale of hardness for sanding discs is measured in grits: finer grits are for tackling softer surfaces or
