Electric orbital sanders

[DerrickfromNC]

Has anyone ever used this type sander? I'm specifically referring to the ones like the dewalt, black&decker and others that can be purchased at LOWES for between $50 & $100. I have a 1yr old paint job on my 67 that I want to do over that would make a good base for the next paint job since the car was stripped prior to it's current paint job. I'm wondering how well an "electric" orbital sander would perform in quickly cutting(40-80 grit) off the clear coat and a layer or two of paint before I begin the hand sanding process.
Just trying to save some $$ and do as much of the grunt work myself and let the painter do the painting.

[craigvwdude]

Should work just fine. Will just take a little longer than a air powered DA.
Have fun!
Craig

[fusername]

I used it. buy decent sanding disks, I had trouble with mine wearing out real fast. maybe I should have experimented with wet sanding? uncloging the disk helps, I was on a heck of a budget so I couldn't fly through them.

[Piper]

I'm a carpenter, and we use the electric orbitals instead of the air powered ones, mainly because most of the electric ones have dust bags. Doesn't seem like much, but we notice a huge difference between the air sanders, and the electrics after a day of sanding. There are some junk ones out there though, look for something small, and comfortable, like an air sander, the Rigid palm sanders are nice from Home Depot, the Bosch ones with the long handles, are not so nice. The only down side we notice, is if you drop them off the bench and bend the arbor, which is not a hard thing to do, they behave like they are possessed, wandering all over, and digging in where you don't want them to.

[bradey bunch]

I am currently stripping the paint off my 412 with a dewalt DA sander. It is awesome. As someone mentioned get quality paper. I am using 60 grit which strips quickly. try it out.