Myself, I prefer no hole discs. From what I have seen the sanders pick up so little dust that it isn't worth it. Then the fan on them just gets more dust airborne for you to breathe unless you have a vacuum cleaner attached to the sander. .

 

Way back when, I had to sand a boat bottom at a boatyard that required that the sanding operation not produce any dust. To meet their mandate, I hooked my ROS up to a shop vac and I was amazed. Not only did the vac collect virtually every speck of dust, it made the sander work more efficiently since it wasn't just re-grinding the dust it had already made. I now have a vac that's dedicated to the sander. The hose is a bit of a pain, but the rest is terrific.

 

Is there a punch available?

Hollow Punch Set, 6 Pc. (harborfreight.com)

Hollow Punch Set, 9 Pc. (harborfreight.com)

TEKTON Hollow Punch Set (12-Piece)-6588 - The Home Depot

 

Thanks dave, but I was hoping for something that punched all 8 at once. I know, greedy...

 

You (or anybody else) probably would not want to pay for one that could do that. I suppose using the drill type punch/cutter ajig could be designed to be used in your drill press. Imagine a base plate with a ring to hold a sanding disc. The ring has indexing detents for 8 equally spaced holes. Position on the drill press table as needed, drill/cut the 1st hole, index to the next, repeat until done.

 

fwiw, you can find replacement pads for your sander. they have hole arrangement so you can use 5 hole or 8 hole discs on the same sander. i put them on both of my ros.

 

As TimPa says, replace the pad with one that has dual figurations.

 

I haven't been able to find a 5 hole pad for the Bosch or a multi-configuration pad. Can anyone share a link?

 

I have not done any research, but I wonder if a 5 hole pattern could be added to the original 8 hole configuration. Yes one would be modifying the original pad by drilling an extra hole pattern in it. Don't know if this is doable or not, just a thought.

 

here is one on my porter cable... ill see if i can find where i bought it.

 

Imagine complaining that the dust collection features of a sander dont work when you dont have anything connected to actually do the dust collection...

Ive yet to meet a sander that includes a built in vacuum (electric one at least). The dust collection features on a sander arent meant to suck up all the dust, just maybe get a little of it. The purpose is facilitating connecting a dust collector to actually do the sucking and filtering

The exception to this is air powered sanders, some of them re-purpose the exhaust air from the motor to use as a venturi generator, turning the exhaust stream into a vacuum thats then used to suck up dust. Electric sanders try to imitate this by using the motor cooling fan to draw air through the pad and hopefully catch some of the dust, but thats hardly the primary purpose. Some still pull dust through better than others, but if you want to be collecting dust, you need suction

 

It all depends on what you do. I've used them with DC. Even the 3M. Even The Festool.

Worked me to death.

I'm like Steve, I can do without..

 

Possible punch solution? Many, many years ago, I bought a single hole paper punch at an office supply store. It has a cast iron frame with a punch that screws down to punch holes through many sheets of paper. Now add an eight hole baseplate from your favorite sander as a guide and use the punch portion to punch holes in the sandpaper disks. Not the most elegant, but something to think about?

 

Thought I'd comment on sander dust collection. A couple of decades ago, I made a small curio shelf (shown in my projects album) in maple. At the time, I had no vac hose for my sanders and used the dust bags to collect the sanding dust. I saved it to mix with glue to use as filler. I still have a great deal of the dust left. I have since purchased a Bosch crush proof sander hase and almost never use the bags that came with my sanders.

 

Do you have a need for "hundreds" of discs. I would think not. I would just sell them (unless they are all used) or e-bay or equivalent and buy to fit new sander. That many discs should go long way toward price of new sander.

George

 

Maybe he uses a lot. I don't buy less than a box of 100 when buying discs. Still I need to order some 2-3 times a year.

 

I bought a Harbor Freight random orbital sander and returned it. It had too much vibration. The dust collection bag would lift during use and leak sawdust out the bottom of the gap, no matter what you did. The rectangular hole for the dust collection bag was not well-designed for attaching a shop vac or dust collector.

I returned it to Harbor Freight and replaced it with a more expensive Ridgid ROS from Home Depot. It sands slightly slower, but with far less vibration. The dust outlet fits my shop vac 2-1/4 inch hose, although I have noticed that it bends the two bayonet-mount pins for the dust bag, so now I use the inner 1-1/4 inch circular fitting with a stretchable rubber hose attachment - that works okay, but falls off occasionally.

When I bought the sander, I bought a collection of Freud sanding discs in various grits. They have 12 holes and fit both five hole or eight hole sanders. Four holes are large in a square pattern, the rest are smaller. Do an image search for "Freud sanding discs" and you can see the hole pattern. The extra holes probably mean less abrasive power than a true eight hole disc, but I bet that materials and workmanship (abrasive, glue, base) matter much more.

Someday I would like to try the Mirka Abranet sanding discs. They are much more expensive, but supposedly last much longer. The mesh material allows sawdust to flow without holes.

Dust collection with the Ridgid ROS and the Freud discs works very well with my shop vac, although I still wear a mask (and hearing protection for the shop vac).

My best and favorite sanding tool is a Preppin' Weapon sanding block. There are many reasons that I like it so much. Besides comfort and fit, it makes it so easy to change sandpapers. The top reason I like it is that it always sands with the grain.

 

I made a jig to add holes to my no holes discs and it works pretty well
on PSA discs, for velcrow, which are tougher , you need sharper points.
This is just a block with table top alignment pins and a piece of laminate
to pop off the disc after punched.
I put an alignment mark on the sander to register it before pushing the sander
down into the pins.

 

i went back a looked, i purchased the universal pad from porter cable, as thats what we use. i suspect that there is a huge "shared" fitment that other ros could also use. fwiw this is a PC 344.

 

Over the years I've worked in a lot of body shops sanding car paint, bondo and fiberglass often all day every day and to this day I'm still breathing ok considering I've also been a smoker since I was 15. Sure, quitting smoking would do wonders for my health and I will eventually make the leap, but the difference between that crud all day and the little amount of sawdust I breath in in comparison is nothing.
I did that work for years without any kind of protection at all and the companies I worked for never offered it. We just assumed we'd live live live until we died died died.. We were probably right.