Designed for home woodworkers and serious hobbyists, Porter-Cable's orbital palm sander is a great tool for quick-finish sanding tasks such as sanding between coats of paint or preparing a surface for stain. The square pad lets you access corners easily, and because the paper folds up and over the pad's edges, you won't mar any perpendicular surfaces you might bump into when working in tight spaces. Clamp levers secure the sheets in place, and the sander works with either regular sandpaper or self-adhesive sheets. This sander comes with a hard-plastic canister reinforced with extra rubber O-rings, ensuring that the canister won't pop off--a problem with early versions of the tool. It's a smart design, and makes for easy, no-mess dust collection. It's much, much better than the common alternatives--cloth bags that seep or paper bags that can tear. A handy punch plate for making dust-collection holes in the sandpaper is included. This is a pretty smooth-operating sander, with fairly minimal vibration, but if you're planning big projects that will require a lot of finish sanding, you might want to consider a more expensive professional unit with a heftier construction and less vibration. --Jon Groebner
