Should I use a drum or orbital sander?

shoult i use a drum or orbital sander

 

This is a very common question people have when trying to decide how much firepower to bring to bear on their floors. The question actually demonstrates a lack of understanding of the process, which we will get into a bit.

Sanding hardwood floors with an orbital or finishing sander can take significantly longer than using a belt or drum sander. It is only recommended to use these tools on floors that are in relatively good condition with only superficial damage to the surface.

What is an orbital sander?

An orbital sander is a small handheld device sander that oscillates. This means that rather than the whole disk spinning on its center axis, it oscillates in the pattern illustrated below. This makes it a lot easier to control as a spinning disk can kick out in every direction. An orbital sander will create a scratch pattern of little swirls.

What are the benefits of an orbital sander?

Orbital sanders are much easier to control. They can sand both the field or ‘body’ of the floor and the edges, which a drum sander cannot. Once you work up to the finer grits, orbital sanders produce a much smoother, less scratchy surface.

They are cheap. You can store them easily or put them up for sale on second-hand sites. I think every household needs one, they cover an array of different jobs.

What are the drawbacks of an orbital sander?

Absolute #1 drawback: power. The difference in power between a drum sander and a random orbital sander is astronomical. For one thing, most random orbitals are around 250 watts, whereas standard single-phase floor sanders can get up to 3900 whats. So we are talking about an order-of-magnitude difference in power.

However, this really doesn’t grasp the sheer difference between these two tools. An orbital sanding motion is much less aggressive even than a spinning motion. My random orbital sander, the Festool Rotex RO150 has both a random orbital and a geared random orbital setting.

With the random orbital setting, I could put that on my hand and it wouldn’t do any damage, whereas if I put the spinning orbital motion on and put that to my hand, well, I don’t want to be graphic.

What is a drum sander?

A drum sander (or big machine as they are affectionately called within the industry) is a large machine that you operate from a standing position. It usually weighs in excess of 50kg and has a large spinning drum that holds the sandpaper.

The drum is applied to the floor, by dropping a lever that lowers the drum onto the floor. Some very rudimentary sanders (such as those often for hire) apply the drum but ‘rocking’ the machine forward until the drum is on the floor.

Just to explain a little better. The drum is always in contact with the floor, but in order to change the belt or turn the machine on, you have to rock it back or ‘lean it down’.

As you can probably tell, English was my weak suit at school.

What are the benefits of using a drum sander?

A drum sander can remove 1mm of wood from the surface of the floor over 200sf in approximately 30 mins. This can vary due to different types of woods and different finishes on the surface as well as types of abrasive. An orbital sander might achieve this in a day. You can learn more about how long it takes to sand a floor here.

So a huge amount of time is saved here. Aside from the time savings, it’s also a ton easier.

Now don’t get me wrong, floor sanders are fairly hard work, they are pulling away from you all the time and you are walking up and down the room many times.

However, the comparative ease with which you can get the job done with a drum sander compared to a random orbital sander is night and day.

Luckily I have never tried sanding 200ft² with an orbital sander but I can imagine my arms dropping off by the end of the day. Also, the constant vibrations through the orbital sander might end up giving you vibration white finger (be sure to take regular breaks if you do decide to do this)

I have to admit I am struggling to come up with other benefits other than faster and easier. Faster and easier is what matters though, right? Ok, let’s talk about some drawbacks.

What are the drawbacks of using a drum sander?

 

Drum sanders are very bulky. Even the smaller ones (the ones that rock back and forth lol) are about 45kg. They can come apart which makes lifting a lot easier, but its still a bit of an effort to get it upstairs to sand bedroom floors and such.

You have to rent them. People don’t like to pay rent for anything, they see it as lost money. If you buy an orbital sander, at least you get to keep the orbital sander (or sell it for at least half your money back on Facebook or eBay). What I would say to those that think like this, is you are buying time and hopefully buying a not-so-sore body.

You can’t (or shouldn’t) finish sanding the floor with a drum sander. This means the last pass of sanding before you vacuum and start putting stain or lacquer down. A long time ago when I was taught the wrong way to sand floors, we finished floors with the drum sander.

Just sand the floor with 120, do the last pass with the edger, then start lacquering or even staining. I am very embarrassed to say this. We never could figure out why it always looked terrible.

This is probably how most DIY’ers will sand their floors, especially those who haven’t found this website. The linear scratch pattern will be visible in the finish. Whereas random orbitals are great for doing fine smooth sanding.

The main reason people don’t want to use drum sanders

SCARY! Hahaha. People often are a little scared to use a drum sander. Which is understandable. I can remember when I first started floor sanding and how I was a little scared. There were many reasons I was scared. For one thing, I was worried I might sand through the floor by accident.

That’s virtually impossible. By some trick of physics, if you hold a drum sander in the same spot for a few seconds, it will create a big dent but it loses its effectiveness, in removing material, very quickly.

I was worried that going over nails and sending sparks into a bag full of wood dust would set the sanding machine on fire and burn the house down with me in it! Again, and it still baffles me, it just doesn’t happen. I have sanded floors with millions of staples and constant sparks flying, but nothing.

Fires do occasionally happen but for some reason, this just isn’t a cause (or I should say an exceptionally rare cause because I can conceive of it happening, I have just never heard of it happening). Suffice it to say, the fear is usually unjustified (as with most things in life).

Summary

As you can see, you use an orbital sander for a completely different reason than a drum sander. Drum sanders are the starting point of any job. You use it to strip off all the old finish and the surface of the wood in as fast a time as possible. This removes all the old dents and stains and gets the wood flat and clean. Everything after that is for smoothing.

So usually you would then edge the floor, drum sand the floor on a finder grit, then again, then edge the floor again then final drum sanding, and only then would you pull out the orbital sander. Even then, it’s not to do the whole floor, but to do the edges where the finishing sanders can’t get. This is the protocol for professionals, but hopefully provides insight into you should use these machines. Only as a fine finishing tool.

If you have decided that renting a drum sander is not for you then I highly recommend you check out my post ‘Sanding Hardwood Floors by Hand.’ It breaks down which hand sanding tools are best for the job. I am happy to answer any questions posted in the comments below.


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  1. Hi Ben – thanks for the great advice!

    We installed a natural history floor and we were advised to drum sand and edge with 36/60/80 grits and orbital sand with 80 grit to finish the floor. Questions: 1) Can we just do the 80 grit sand with the orbital and 2) we are using “spot” filler at 60 grit for nail holes, knot holes and a couple cracks and hand sanding 60 grit before final machine 80 grit – is that good? Finally, we want a natural no stain finish and the advice is 3 coats of polyurethane – is there a better finish?

  2. Hi Ben. I recently purchased your ebook and videos which have been so helpful,,, especially the sections on how to operate a drum sander. Unfortunately for me, I came across your ebook a day too late as I had already tried to sand two bedrooms in an old Queen Anne Victorian that my wife and I just purchased. In doing so, I created numerous “hotdog” divet dents with the sander, which look even more horrendous with the kind of stain my wife used (espresso). We’ve decided to rent the drum again to remove the stain and remedy the “hotdog” divets. Can you please give me pointers (step by step, grit by grit and which directions) I need to take in order to remove these divets. Please HELP from Las Vegas New Mexico. 🙏.

  3. Hi Ben!

    First of all I want to say thank you for all the knowledge you share! I even ordered your ecourse.
    I do have a question.. we have been following the sanding sequence and so far have sanded with the drum diagonal and then straight at 36 (actually ended up going straight at 36 twice because we still had some diagonal lines after straight the first time and honestly one room I ended up going straight at 36, diagonal at 36, and two more times straight at 36) and the edger in a 36 and just finished our first two rooms with 60 on the drum. My concern is we are still seeing a “halo”around the rooms, where the edger was used. The edges are lighter than the rest of the rooms. I am unsure how we are seeing lighter wood in the edges after such clean middles with the drum and especially after going over it as many times as we ended up doing. Could you shed some advice?!

    Thank you!!!

    1. Hello Jess, I am sorry that you are having this trouble. I assume you are staining the floor? When wood is sanded smoother, it absorbs less stain than a rougher grit. Even if you used the same grits on the edger and the drum sander, the edger produces a finer scratch pattern than the drum sander.

      I am a little surprised that you finished on a 60 grit with the drum sander and that you didn’t use a finishing sander (which helps to blend the edges with the middle). None of my content, free or paid, says it’s ok to do that! Especially with staining! Read the ebook chapter on staining, watch the video course again, watch my youtube video “Refinishing Hardwood Floors Yourself” I hope you get a better outcome!

  4. Without any prior experience, do you think using a drum sander is a good idea? If not, what’s the alternative tool you’ll recommend?
    I found it difficult to handle when I was using it for the first time.

  5. Hi Ben. Great site! We have discovered finger-block parquet underneath the laminate we inherited when we bought our house. Can you use a drum sander for this type of parquet or do I have to use an orbital/oscillating sander? Cheers, Mark.

  6. I asked you in one of your videos if one can skip the orbital buffing. Well, I got the answer here. I will definitely make sure not to skip the buffering if I am to refinish my floor.

    Thanks for the great videos!!!

  7. Im not sure where to ask a question so I figured this was a good place. I used a drum sander from a rental place, they gave me a clark 8 self lowering. It took me a while to get used to it. I was almost done with all 3 grits 36, 60, and 80, when I find out they had an Ez 8 with the feathering handle.

    My problem is I thought I might have chatter marks so I used a hardplate with 100 grit under a couple other sources advise. The chatter I couldnt see before is now visible. Only in some places and quite small. Is it something I can buff out if I go over it again? Or with the orbital square buff I rented for the last pass?

    Should I give up and call a profesional?
    Im worried because its been a week and this throws off the schedule if it will take days to fix.

    And is there a technique for getting out drum stop marks? Im going to get a light to look for those and Im guessing there are a few in the first room.

    I know I should have bought the class or book. I watched all your videos on youtube, but 1100sqft is a pretty big job for a novice. I just dont want to ruin the floors and then seal it if it can be fixed. Thanks in advance.

    1. you can take this chatter out you just need to drop down to 80 or maybe even a 60 grit on the buffer if necessary. See if the rental shop has a multi-headed sander.

  8. Dear Mr. Ben,
    I bought your ebook and video course. I just wanted to let you know…..it was the BEST money I have ever spent! Long story short…..I refinished the hardwood wood floors on an old home that I’ve owned for 40 years. I ripped out the old carpet…..and that it was. Hardwood floors that had been covered up for YEARS! They looked terrible…..but I was hopeful that I could refinish them. I read your book over and over…..and did the same with your videos. To the very best of my ability…..I followed your procedures step by step. To say that I am pleased with the outcome……would be an UNDERSTATEMENT!! They look fantastic. When I show people the before and after pictures…..they are amazed!
    So thank you again…..so much…..for the knowledge that you have put forth to us Do It Yourselfers!!
    Sincerely,
    Eddie Merrill
    Fayetteville Georgia
    USA

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