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I used to think a DA sander was just for final touch-ups, now it's my first tool out of the box
For years, my process was to grab the big rotary sander for any major panel work, you know, the heavy stuff. That changed about 18 months ago when I watched a guy in a shop in Tacoma do a full quarter panel with just a 6-inch DA. He finished in half the time I would have, with way less heat and almost no risk of cutting through. Now I start with the DA for 90% of the initial shaping, only switching to the rotary for the absolute worst spots. It saves my arms and saves the metal. Anyone else made that switch and found they use way less filler now?
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elizabeth_martin5mo ago
My buddy had the same lightbulb moment after burning through a fender. He swears by his DA for the first pass now too.
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morgan.tessa5mo ago
Yeah, that's a hard lesson to learn the expensive way. Honestly used to think a rotary was the only way to cut fast enough on bad paint. Seeing that first thin spot makes your stomach drop. Now the DA comes out for the heavy work every single time, no question. It just takes that one mistake to change your whole process.
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williamt444mo ago
I remember seeing a post from @elizabeth_martin about her buddy having that same moment with a fender, and it really stuck with me. Reading stuff like that made me pay more attention to how much heat the rotary puts into the panel, especially on thin spots near body lines. Once I started paying attention to that, it was pretty obvious why the DA works better for taking off the bulk of the material first. You just get a feel for how much the paper is cutting vs how much the machine is burning, and the DA wins every time for control.
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