[lincoln64]

I've noticed the initials "DA" used when refrring to sanding. What does it stand for?

 

[weirdbeard]

Duel action.

 

[lincoln64]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[baddbob]

Dual Action, orbital and spin like a grinder. The true DA sanders have a weight you can lock for grinder mode and unlock for orbital. Now DA is just a generic description applied to almost anything that has an orbital action.

 

[Rambo_The_Dog]

Dual Action, orbital and spin like a grinder. The true DA sanders have a weight you can lock for grinder mode and unlock for orbital. Now DA is just a generic description applied to almost anything that has an orbital action.

Yeah - the nice coutner-weight that would smack your knuckles everynow and again, one of my workers broke his finger once!

 

[kenseth17]

Bob did a good job of explaining da, so I will only add a little to it. Back in the 80's we really only had the old dual action sanders to work with as far as I remember. The one with the counterweight that could be turned to go from sand to grind mode. These can be used to final sand a car, they were used back then and many probably still use them today. But they are better for rough out type work and are a little harder to control. Now in almost every bodyshop you will find random orbital palm sanders. They are good for finishing operations and final sanding. A good one is light weight and you hardly know you have a sander at all. They have a tighter orbit and better balance. Many people use these orbital sanders too for fine sanding before buffing, whixh you shouldn't use the "da" for. Da is often used for either sander. The Da sanders you can get a decent one fairly inexpensively now adays, and the palm sanders are jusually just a bit more expensive, but if you plan on doing a bit of bodywork, you may want both in your arsenal. Some better brands of palm sanders are dynabrade and hutchins. If you are only really planning on finishing sanding and sanding before buffing with it you may want to by the palm sander, but you can also sand prior to paint with a da, which is also better at knocking down filler or stripping off paint. You can final sand with the da, but it is just a little more difficult to work with if you don't have a little experience using them.

 

[jcclark]

I purchased a National Detroit DA recently and was surprised that the
weight lock position is meant for pad removal only,
That's what the instructions said.
When I locked it and tried to sand with it that way there was hardly any
power and it didn't work very well.
I looked everywhere for a sander that was meant to run in the locked position
and couldn't find one.
I took my DA back and got a air sander that was rotary only,
no dual action, no weight or lock.
I wanted it for stripping only and this one does it much better than a DA.
I still have a regular DA and palm sander, I use all of them. imp:

 

[MARTINSR]

Jim, ND probably changed that instruction for some marketing or legal reason (you don't want people hurting their little hands). But that weight was most definitely designed for one of the "dual" actions.

I have to tell you, I own a ND that is used regularly (in about an hour I will be using it on a door skin I will be installing) in the "grinding" mode. In fact, I never use it as an orbital sander, I have a DynaBrade orbital for that which works much better. Though I have to tell you, the DAQ is MUCH more aggressive, MUCH more aggressive.


I use the DAQ as a "Finishing grinder" when doing metal finishing on small areas. With 120 grit paper it works a lot like a small shrinking disc and will do an amazing job of smoothing out metal.

Brian

 

[lincoln64]

I've just been using an old B&D drywall sander. It's really noisy but works pretty well and I don't have to buy discs as it holds a 1/3 of a sheet of sandpaper. It's orbital and has a pretty large surface area.