Popular Woodworking 2008-10 № 171, страница 44

BY GLEN O. HUEY

hand, whether the switch iscasily accessible to most hands.and how easy the tool istocontrd. The other important issues arc dust colkct ion and whet her or not the tool isaggrcssivc.

A Five-minute Stock-removal Test In order to test the tools' aggressiveness and dust collection, we ran the sanders through a simple five-minute test. Pieces of surfaced poplar were cut to the same size and weighed to three decimal places.

Then we sanded cach board for five minutes usingan identical, unused «120-gnt sanding disc. (The Festool sander uses a Festool

11218 sander ranked second in stock removal. A quick look at the chart on page 62 will give you an idea as lo where each tool placed.

Dust Collection Design and Ability We've all seen or experienced the canister or bag (ailing off a sanderand a cloud of dust bellowing out. That'snoi good. Soastudy of dust collection has tobegin with howthc receptacle attaches to the sander.

I lere we give kudos to the Ridgid R2600 bccausc the bag is attached to a frame that's screwed to the body of the sander. Thcrc'sno chance this receptacle would fall off.

Ihc lYincr-Cablcs. DeWalt and Milwaukee haveciihcra canister or bag that twists and locksonto transition pieces that arc attached to the sanders' bodies.

_^fj[cc»»iiv.tDcw. ma 62

disc due to the hole patterns.) When the five-minute cycle was complete, we weighed each board to find the amount of stock removed. At the same time we evaluated the dust collection of the sanders. noting any dust that was deposited on the tool, that was left on the board or was visible in the air.

A look at the amount of stock removed should also involve a study of t he orbit diameter of each sander. That diameter influences the aggressiveness of the machine. Forcxam-plc. the Festool sander was the least aggres-siveai rcmovingstock.and it has the smallest orbildiametcrofthcgroup. The POrtcr-Cablc 390 is the most aggressive sander tested. It removed more than a half ounce of waste, but it didn't have the largest orbit diameter. That honor goes to Craftsman. The Craftsman