Don't make these 5 mistakes with a random orbit sander. 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've actually made these mistakes more than once. Something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? 🙄 And if you just can't get enough sanding videos (and really, who cant?) be sure to watch my Sanding Basics video ► ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mKairfMzc6Q.html Thanks for being part of WWMM!

You forgot the ol “Drinking a few too many beers and forgetting to check if your sanding pad is attached and then sanding with just the Velcro for 20 minutes and now your pads won’t stick to the sander anymore”

The wonderful thing about power tools, they allow you screw things up so much quicker than you can by hand.

Another hopefully helpful tip to add to this: The weight of the sander is all the pressure you need. Just use your hand to guide the tool not push down on it. Your sandpaper will last longer and you'll be less likely to get deep gouges.

This comes just in time because I'm making a ton of mistakes tomorrow.

In addition to the usual circular random orbital sander, you can attach a sanding pad to an oscillating multi-tool. The triangular-shaped head is great for getting into right corners.

I seriously love your channel Steve. I'm a pro woodworker. Woodworking is intimidating to learn now days. People assume they need 20k of tools to make something nice. Thank you for your work on this channel

I love your common sense approach to woodworking and talking about very important details like sanding that perhaps many people have not considered...until they create a mistake that you have just shown! Thanks for the video!

Steve, For me, this has been one of your best videos! It's a fantastic demonstration of the various, pitfalls of an often neglected topic, and has been very helpful! Thank you.

Pre-sanding before assembling is helpful as well. Great video!

RIP, Sacrificial Sanding Mistake Demo Box

This was really helpful! I just bought my first random orbital sander and sounds like this covers the basic mistakes.

Finally had a real spring day and spent it outside in my outdoors shop, in the sanding zone for several hours. Sawdust is organic and goes back to the soil. Recently looking at 2 big box stores on veneered plywood. I think your being generous in saying paper thin. Now I know why people do their own veneer work! Thanks for the reminders of Murphy's mentoring!

Good job, as a builder, carpenter for several decades, I can attest, listen to Steve ,he knows what he is doing, good advice

Great tips, Steve. I’m glad you had the grit to tackle such a rough topic.

Steve, I want to thank you for sharing this with us. I’m going to be starting my first few projects soon and I would have made those mistakes. I’m still getting my tools together but hopefully will be starting soon. Thanks so very much.

Thanks for the helpful info. I just got my first electric sander so it's going to be a trial and error but thanks to you I got more knowledge now😃

I’m absolutely in love with your videos. They’re so instructive and fun to watch! Keep up the good work! Love from Brazil

thanks to all your well detailed videos i was able to do my first big wood working project on a budget with minimal tools. thank you!

I like the way these videos are made, right to the point. Steve has tons of knowledge for both beginners and intermediate woodworkers.

The turning a big box paint stick into a sanding stick is genius. Gonna have to try that myself. One extra tip my dad (retired fiberglass worker) taught me is never sand with a power tool in horizontal or vertical motion. Always figure eights. Helps keep things more even. Great video Steve, looking forward to the next!

There is one very important tip that wasn't included: be sure to not move your orbital sander faster than about 1" per second. Otherwise, you'll get pigtails, which are those curly swirls that you may not see until you apply stain. Move at a steady pace, 1" per second, especially when using a sander to strip off dressers and such. And you'll be fine. Great tips you shared.

Great video! I too have made these mistakes. On my small and medium size projects I usually go with a sanding block but I do love my oscillator

Hey Steve this is Charlie I have been a fan of yours 2 years I watch your video content and some cases even try to build what you built but mostly I do my own stuff I really enjoy the project videos they inspire me

“Sure, it won’t poke an eye out....” lol. Thank you for the great tips!

I'm what I would consider a intermediate woodworker, and I always find your videos very helpful. Thanks

Great video, Just what I needed before sanding a plywood/pine board barn door I made. Thank you.

Many thanks. Some tricks as add lines to ensure an equal sanding are really clever. So many thanks again, Im a french beginner and your advices are very useful. Sincerly yours, Milos

The timing of this video is perfect. I'm building a new blanket chest lid. This will help me from making mistakes when I sand down the sides.

Love your videos! You have been one of the few people I watch on RU-vid that has definitely helped my woodworking skills progress. So down to earth and practical. It never fails after watching videos like this, with its simplicity yet interesting approach I get so excited to get back out and build something awesome! With every new project I build comes new mistakes that I didn’t foresee yet with each mistake I learn from them. Sometimes I look back at some of my previous projects and I think wow... look how bad I was even just 2 years ago! Anyways I’ll quit rambling on but thanks again for the awesome videos! Keep it up.

I love this helpful videos for beginner like me. Thanks for taking the time on making this

Great job clearly explain , what could help pre-sand those area before putting it together, it work for me

Nice tips, I will keep them in mind for my DIY projects

Thanks for your insight! Really good video. And keeping it short n sweet is appreciated!

Very helpful video. I especially like the tips on gluing sandpaper to a paint stir stick, and the tips on sanding plywood. I really enjoyed your straight forward approach to your video and the way you showed examples of what not to do.

These are great tips Steve, thank you for sharing your experience!

I love your honesty. Thank you!

Hey Steve on that inside edges/ corners subject with the RO sanders...I usually make a lauan "hardplate" for mine for a few reasons! 1. The softer the driver head, the more dish out it creates. 2. Paper size doesn't match the driver heads. 3. Saves wear and tear on the driver pad and the hooks used to attach most paper. Final hack... upon attaching your paper, put the sander onto a scrap 1'x1' piece of flat, fairly dense wood (I like maple for instance) and turn it on. Gently push it into something metal (old single cut bastard files are usually plentiful in my shop) for a couple quick rotations. This will rasp away overhanging sandpaper and minimize or eliminate edge gouging woes!

Great video. I also have fallen into most of those mistakes. I think I invest in a detail sander. Please keep up all the great video. I wait for them for inspiration. Thank you.

Thanks so much for your video. I especially liked the idea of attaching some sanding paper to a paint stick. I’m 68 and just started woodworking. Looking forward to viewing more of your videos. Cheers!

I sand and stain a lot of surfaces before assembly, found this to be the easiest way to avoid a lot of finishing errors

Great tips. That's happened to me to and now I sand my pieces before assembly.

Absolutely good and useful advice. Much appreciated!

Thanks for this heads up. Been there done that, got the Tshirt 😁. One tip from my side, I try to sand difficult to reach surfaces eg like on the inside corners prior to assembly and make sure to wipe glue spill before the glue dries and or the use of tape to prevent glue spill.

Many can do woodworking, few can talk like you. Perfect

You explain things well, I learnt a lot. Well done.

I just noticed the spray paint logo in the back. I love it. I’d be happy to mess around with it and make it production ready if ya need it.

Great timing, literally just got a random orbit sander today.

Thanx for sharing. Your tips are always enlightening.

Steve that was an educational tour. Thank you for sharing.

Always have the sander resting against the wood before you hit the trigger to turn it on. Touching down onto wood with the sander already in motion provides a momentary grinder effect, as seen at 2:35.

Love your very informative and entertaining videos. Peace and Good Fortune to you and your family.

An amazing video like always. I really like your basics video playlist, they have helped me out tremendously. I am sure that I would have made some mistakes that you covered during this video so hopefully, I remembered them all. Cheers from Holland

Excellent. Very helpful tips thanks.

when you have an uneven joint just a quick pass with a power planer is better than sanding you might remove a 64 but its even along the length of the piece

Steve, super helpful video! Thanks so much. God bless. 💛😊

Love your vids steve. Do miss the micro jig humor. thank you for sharing.

I love my Dewalt orbital sander its my first sander, everything so smooth in every projects unlike before with manual paper sander I kept getting splinters😁

Another excellent video thanks for sharing have a blessed day

Really good practical tips-thank you!

I have a vibrating tool with a delta base where you can attach a triangular piece of sanding paper. It has worked quite well in inner edges and restricted areas where the disc of the rotoorbital (as we call it in Argentina) doesn't have the space to move back and forth. Thank you for the advice and the idea of a stick with the sanding paper is great. I also found some "bricks" of foam covered with sanding surface that can cover some of the task.

Great tips! Well done!

You're a genius. I love the tips on sanding corners.

First time viewer of your channel and instant subscriber. Appreciate your humor and helpful tips. I don’t think anyone enjoys sanding but it’s gotta be done when working with wood. Might as well take your time and do the job right. Thanks for the tips sir!

Your videos are always helpful Steve, thank you so much

I use a black and decker mouse sander along with my orbital sander. Let's me get right to the edges and into corners. Also the rigid base plate is great for rounding over edges. Excellent piece of kit for very little cost.

So many awesome tips! Thanks 😎

Sanding inside edges before assembly is also a good technique. Thanks Steve!

Thanks for the useful tips Steve.

That was an excellent video on sanding. Thank you.

This was SUPER helpful. Thank you

Great video. Thanks!

Great video and some really nice quick pro tips!

Good tips Steve. Also, a good presentation. Thanks.

Great video and tips. Thank you.

giving your project a good sanding really does up the level of the project..

I find sanding all parts before assembling of what I'm building helps allot and makes it much easier.

Such a good video, thanks 😊

Dude I havnt seen any of your videos in some time now and I'm amazed at how different you look.

Steve, GREAT tips. I also made a block of plywood with cork glued to it that is the exact size of a 3x24” sanding belt.

Me encanta el detalle de la tabla QUIJA del fondo a la derecha . Buen trabajo un saludo desde España

Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

Very Very Helpful

Most helpful woodworking channel I know!

I like the idea of the sanding stick.. Thanks.

Loved the pencil tip, i saw it once and i did not know what the heck was that, thanks!!

man i love you, your tips are like treasures, i am an egyptian by the way and i wish i meet you someday

Straight, efficient explanation 😉

Good advices Steve, I specially like the pencil trick. Thanks.

Hate sanding, but always glad when a project is done and you can see where the time went!

I am sanding something today. Thank you for this.

I always sand all parts before assembly. Then final sanding with a good old sanding block.

Wow I actually needed this video as I'll be dealing with uneven joints.

Thank you so much for this. Super useful!

Solid advice, as per usual. Thanks

I love your videos please don't stop

Steve- Just found your channel and I really appreciate what you are doing. Keep it up, my man!

Great tips, as always!

Yes you are right always I have problem with corner 😡 From you we learn 😀😀 thanks

Keep it up Steve! Great content here!