Mirka 1.25" angled ROS price drop

[smorgasbord]

From $785 to $588

Still crazy, but I guess if you can really use it....
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073H9XGZH

 

[luvmytoolz]

I use these mainly for sanding/polishing in the routed channels on my charcuterie boards, as they're pretty much the only sander on the market with that form factor and small pad, and they are nothing short of sensational!

They easily save me at least an hour or two per board, and as I punch all my own sanding/polishing discs with my flypress as well as make my own backing pads in even smaller sizes, the media cost is hardly anything!

The size can be deceiving, they're a really powerful little sander and the battery's last really well.

 

[smorgasbord]

Yeah, I was surprised the orbit is a full 5mm - that's pretty aggressive for a 35mm sander.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I wasn't happy buying into another battery platform, but the seller had these on a massive special so after ogling them for years I finally gave in. I'm so glad I did, they are just amazingly powerful and awesome little units. I also use them for spot sanding on welding projects, as well as buffing the headlights on the missus's car!

I punch out Abranet grits in 35-40mm diameter, and put them on a 25-30mm pad so the ends roll up, and this gives me perfect results sanding on the flats and more importantly in the rounded grooves. Doing this all by hand previously was so unbelievably tedious and time consuming beyond belief.

The polishing pads I punch out in various fine to super fine grits also give a glorious finish with the hardwax oils!

[attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3][attachimg=4]

 

[ear3]

My local Festool dealer is going to start stocking these, and promised me a demo when the first batch comes in. Anyone else with good experience with this sander? It's pretty niche, but since I do some lathe work and occasional furniture restoration, it seems like it could be useful.

Those are beautiful boards @luvmytoolz Is that some sort of epoxy concoction in the honeycombed portion?

 

[luvmytoolz]

@ear3 If you want to mainly use it for sanding on the lathe, externally the Mirka's would be perfect, for internal sanding on smaller stuff it would probably be too awkward given the short length. I haven't seen anyone using it for sanding as yet, but the "Rupes Nano with Ibrid Tech" long or short neck polishers might possibly be a consideration, they also have an extension rod for the head. 12mm RO and if they can polish they should be able to sand.

Everytime I use my Mirka's I'm reminded how glad I am I got them, and couldn't recommend them highly enough, but one other model I definitely wouldn't recommend is the Proxxon long neck rotary sander, the duty cycle renders it pretty useless, if the motor doesn't burn out that is.

Thanks for the kind words on the boards, I make my own silicon molds with large hexagons that form cavities in the resin & wood boards I cast in them, so I can then create unique resin/glitter effects inside the hexagons on the boards, or insert objects, flowers, etc. I know some people get rabidly mad at the thought of resin with wood, but I really love making these charcuterie boards.

 

[Cheese]

Those are beautiful boards @luvmytoolz Is that some sort of epoxy concoction in the honeycombed portion?

Nice design and a nice looking finished product.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Nice design and a nice looking finished product.

Thank you very kindly! I'm currently working on some new board designs with embedded coffee beans coated with a super hard "Diamond Coat" epoxy top coat I'll be sanding tomorrow, so I'll post some pics of the sanding results with the Mirka's.

The sanders have bluetooth so the phone app will record all the stats and times taken (including vibration levels), so that will be interesting to see exactly how much time it takes.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Ok I've been sanding resin/wood boards today, and what would normally take me at least an hour on the inside curves by hand, I could do in roughly 10mins using the Mirka.

If you're doing a lot of small radius inside curves, the 3.0mm RO would be the better choice over the 5mm RO if you only got one sander. And don't fear, the grunt of the 3.0mm has to be seen to be believed, moves an astounding amount of wood!

The other thing I do to cut down the time is use over size sanding sheets/discs as shown so the edges roll up as seen below. I also use 1500g 77mm diameter discs as the final sanding, before hitting the board with Abralon pads.

I'd estimate I'm saving at least 1.5-2.5 hours per board, depending on the type of board.