Traded my hawk and trowel for a banjo sander on a big job in Denver last year

I figured the banjo would save me time on all those long horizontal joints, but man did it kick up dust something fierce. Has anyone else gone back to hand mudding after trying power sanders?

3 comments

3 Comments

leehall1mo ago

You ever try sanding with a respirator on and still feel like you're eating drywall for a week? Same boat here. Swore I'd never touch a power sander again after that mess.

ben_lewis1mo ago

Last time I drywall sanded I used a Mirka Ceros sander with a good Festool vac and a 3M half-mask respirator, clicked the filters on tight, and I felt totally fine after. I mean maybe it's the quality of the respirator or the vac doing the heavy lifting, but I've never had that "eating drywall" feeling people talk about. Idk, I think a lot of guys just go cheap on the gear and then blame the dust. A power sander with a good dust collection setup actually makes way less dust than hand sanding in my experience, because you're not kicking everything into the air manually. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather spend 2 hours with a sander than a whole weekend with a sanding block and a sore arm.

juliarodriguez1mo ago

Oh man that reminds me of the time I sanded a whole basement ceiling without a vac hooked up and spent the next week coughing up what looked like grey foam. Never making that mistake again.