Official Luthiers Forum!

Any thoughts on palm sanders - I've used 1mm orbit ones in ther past for cleaning at 120grt. Can random be used? or better off with elbow grease?

I've used a 1/4 sheet Makita palm sander (1.5 mm eccentric orbit) with up to 320 grit with success, but always sand along direction of grain by hand after.
Even used a large (150 mm?) ROS for removing wood/shellac in a hurry, but you must scrape/hand sand to remove scratches afterwards.
Can save my old elbows a bit!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I use a random orbit sander with 120 grit, then follow up with hand sanding to 320.