I'm not sure why this wasn't told to me when i specifically asked what was the difference between the two methods on this past Sundays class,
My apology, I tried my hardest to answer everyone's questions, with real world, detailed answers, I didn't realize I missed your question till you posted it today.
Here's the answer,
The difference between an air DA Sander and an electric DA Sander besides one powered by air and the other powered by electricity is primarily the orbit or stroke size of the oscillating action.
Air DA Sanders are typically either,
3/16” Orbit = Aggressive Sanding
3/32” Orbit = Finish Sanding
Electric DA polishers = 5/16” Orbit
This includes all of these popular electric DA Sanders.
- Porter Cable 7424XP
- Meguiar’s G110v2
- Griot’s Garage ROP
- Porter Cable 7424 and 7336
- Meguiar’s G100 and G220
The larger the stroke, generally speaking the more aggressive the cutting action or the more potential for aggressive cutting action, other factors are involved but generally speaking, a larger orbit will provide more aggressive sanding action.
Besides that, as I stated in the class, the Meguiar's Unigrit discs were designed for a 5/16" stroke, I've used them with Air DA Sanders and while I have not done any comparison testing, the Meguiar's Unigrit discs work well with both air and electric DA machines.
maybe the fact that somebody got a little greedy and WAY overbooked the class to 30 people when it should have been 15 MAX
Gosh Rick, it wasn't done on purpose, in the future we'll modify how people sign-up through the store for more accurate accounting.
One thing for sure, once everyone had arrived, my job was to do my best to make sure everyone had a good experience and the feedback I received from everyone I personally spoke with was overwhelmingly positive.
and the instructor had no time to explain answers fully and demonstrate both methods.
I stated in the beginning of the power point presentation that would only be using the electric DA's for the machine dampsanding in the class.
We have an air compressor but people new to machine sanding tend to struggle with the stiffness of the air line and keeping the sanding disc flat to the surface, because both types of sanding do a great job. Also the Compressor is in another room and using the air DA's at this time means running the lines under the garage door and it can cause a trip hazard. I also covered the stiffness of the air line issue in the power point presentation.
Complete chaos compounds flying everywhere instructor running from one panel to the next trying to help everyone it was basically just try to figure it out for yourself, not the instructors fault just somebody booked way to many people for the class and if that is going to become a trend I would not recommend going to the advanced class.
:laughing: Just to note, when people are new to using a rotary buffer, it's normal for splatter to fly off the buffing pad as it takes practice to pick up your bead of product using the 10 @ 10 Technique. This is what the class is about, introducing people to advanced techniques and providing them the opportunity to "practice"
Remember, at the very beginning of the class I stated very clearly that the goal of the class was not to make everyone an expert and sanding and using a rotary buffer, that comes with experience and experience is gained over time with practice.
The goal is the same goal we strived for at Meguiar's and that is to bring up your comfort level using the tools and to provide education so that everyone can talk about these topics with a good understanding of the tools, products and procedures.
I asked the entire class at least a couple of times if everyone felt comfortable with using the tools and products and if everyone thought they could hold an intelligent conversation over the topics taught and everyone that observed said "Yes".
Don't get me wrong it was a good class and i still learned new things,
This is just an overview because I went into depth on all of the below topics...
- How to prepare sandpaper for sanding
- How to prepare paint for sanding
- How to hand sand
- How to machine sand
- How to use a rotary buffer, wool pad and a cutting compound to remove sanding marks
- How to use a rotary buffer, foam pad and a polish to remove wool pad swirls
- How to use a DA Polisher to insure all swirls are removed
- How to use a DA Polisher to seal the paint with a coat of wax or a paint sealant
- Wiping techniques through each procedure
- How to clean a pad on the fly
- How to clean a pad using a nylon brush
- How to clean a pad using a Spur
- How to clean a pad using a Pad Washer
- How to use a Paint Thickness Gauge
- How to tape-off and protect raised body lines
Again that's just a summary of everything we went over, I'm known more for going really in-depth in my classes and in my articles, not skimping on information...
but when i come home and see how smoothly things should go when the correct amount of people are booked for the class , and both methods air and electric sanding are shown, it makes me feel cheated.
I'll have someone from Customer Care contact you to see if there's anything we can do to turn this into a Win/Win deal.
Thank you for your feedback...
It's posted to the wrong thread as I have not created the thread for the class that we held on Sunday, September 19th, 2010 yet... but after I hit the [Submit Reply] button I will created it with lots of pictures hopefully showing lots of hand-on training with a fun group of people.
:dblthumb2:
