{"id":28665,"date":"2025-10-19T18:53:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T17:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28665"},"modified":"2025-10-20T00:52:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T23:52:00","slug":"workshop-diy-fixing-my-orbital-sander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28665","title":{"rendered":"WORKSHOP\/DiY: Fixing My Orbital Sander"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28660\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3486.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Old and busted vs the new hotness.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28661\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3485.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">And again\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As I\u2019d feared, the new pad I ordered, via Amazon, wasn\u2019t an accurate match; the four mounting holes on my sander being just a wee bit closer together. This can be seen in the pic\u2019 below (orbital sander ring, on top of the new pad, illustrates the issue).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28662\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3487.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thinking how to fix things\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end I used the holes on the little metal ring (that goes \u2018twixt pad and sander) to drill more accurately located holes on the new pad. To my great relief, this worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28663\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3488.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">I could\u2019ve used these holes\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To get accurately drilled holes in the hard plastic (and thence through soft foam!), I double\/clamped the pad to some sacrificial timber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3489-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28664\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3489-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3489-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3489-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/img_3489.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Clamping and drilling\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems that a good few of these generic near brand-less power tools suffer from similar issues, re maintenance: non-standard fittings, and non-existent support!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if I can muddle through, and keep them functioning acceptably? All told, at the end o\u2019 the day, it seems to have worked. I now have a working orbital sander again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I\u2019d feared, the new pad I ordered, via Amazon, wasn\u2019t an accurate match; the four mounting holes on my sander being just a wee bit closer together. This can be seen in the pic\u2019 below (orbital sander ring, on top of the new pad, illustrates the issue). Thinking how to fix things\u2026 In the &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=28665\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;WORKSHOP\/DiY: Fixing My Orbital Sander&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-7sl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28667,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28665\/revisions\/28667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}