What is the difference between an orbital sander and a 1/4 sheet palm sander. Is the sanding motion the same? What are the best uses for each. I do mostly small wood working projects and finishing projects.

 

I have both, and use the orbital sander about 100% of the time. The orbital sander can be used for very fine sanding to very rough sanding with 50 grit paper. The palm sander is for fine sanding. Orbital sanders have sanding disks with holes in them that suck most of the dust into a dust collector. Disks attach like velcro. Works slick. Takes seconds to change paper. The palm sander is more of a pain to attach the paper to. They have clips for attaching the paper, and you have to cut your own holes in the paper if you want dust to be sucked to the dust collector. (It’s possible that they make paper just for palm sanders, but I’ve never looked for any). The orbital sander has a more aggressive action to it. You can’t really get into real tight corners with either sander, so hand sanding is still necessary from time to time.