Orbiter Drill Sanding Attachment Review

The old article under this URL covered a drill-mounted sanding attachment. Its brand attribution was not something I could verify, so this page covers drill-driven sanding honestly and points at the accessory that does it well.

The distinction that matters

In a drill press: genuinely useful. The quill holds the drum perpendicular to the table, the table supports the work, and you get a true edge sanded square to the face. This is a real technique that furniture makers use.

In a handheld drill: mostly frustrating. Nothing holds the drum square to anything. The result is a rounded, wandering edge that takes longer to fix than it took to make. A handheld drill turning an abrasive drum is fine for rough shaping in a piece of scrap and poor for anything you intend to keep.

If the plan is handheld, a random orbital sander or a half-round rasp will serve you far better.

What a drum kit is actually for

Inside curves. A bandsaw or jigsaw leaves a rough concave edge, and no flat sander can reach into it. A drum whose diameter is a little smaller than the tightest radius in the curve cleans it in one pass.

Have a range of diameters. Trying to sand a tight radius with an oversized drum produces flats you will see in the finished piece.

The one habit

Raise and lower the work continuously as you feed. A drum in a drill press does not oscillate, which means a single band of abrasive does all the cutting, glazes over and stops cutting while the rest of the sleeve is untouched. Moving the workpiece up and down the drum spreads the wear and — more importantly — keeps fresh grit in contact so you are cutting rather than burnishing.

Set the table so the bottom of the drum sits just below the table surface, into a hole or a sacrificial panel of ply, so you can sand the full thickness of the edge.

What to buy

The POWERTEC drill press sanding drum kit, linked below, gives you a set of drum diameters on a common arbor with spare sleeves. The sleeves are a standard consumable — any brand in the right size fits.

If you sand curved edges regularly, a dedicated oscillating spindle sander does this job properly, with the vertical motion built in. The drum kit is the cheap route to the same result with more attention required from you.