Today’s show car finishes require more care than your typical dual action sander can provide. Rupes has long been known for high-quality auto finishing machines—from buffers to sanders, and even dust extraction. The line of Rupes Skorpio III sanders come in a 3mm, 6mm, and 9mm orbit. Model numbers are RH353, RH356, and RH359, respectively.

The elements of a random orbital sander make it so the stroke should be random. Therefore, the sanding area should not have repeated marks in the same place, such as a grinder. One action is the internal spinning, rotating on an axis. The second action is an offset weight, which is offset from its axis, causing the offset weight to orbit around the axis. Rupes delivers excellent performance, great ergonomics and lower noise pollution with this line of Skorpio III sanders.

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Rupes Skorpio III Sanders Line – Features and Specs

Smooth Finish

The purpose for the Rupes RH359 9mm sander is to do the bulk of the material removal. Whether you’re working on a car’s finish or woodworking, the 9mm will be used with more coarse sandpaper (40-100 grit). This should do most of your material removal, probably 80%. Next, using the 6mm (RH356), finer sandpaper is needed (120-220 grit) to remove more material, however, this will be a finer and slower pace. Finally, the 3mm orbit (RH353) works the best with 320 and finer sandpaper. This 3mm orbit and finer paper is doing less removal and more blending. This last step is preparing a really smooth surface for primer, paint, or stain to be applied.

In addition to the different size orbits available, the Rupes Skorpio III sanders offer other features as well. Performance is as good or better than most sanders that I have used. Also, the ergonomics are really good, so they are very comfortable, even during long use. The Rupes muffler system makes these Skorpio III some of the quietest pneumatic DA sanders that I have used. A throttle allows the user to adjust the air volume input, on the fly, controlling the RPM.

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These Rupes Skorpio II sanders are no cheap, at $250-299 each, but they still offer a great value in the right circumstance. If you’re doing $500 paint jobs or building $250 end tables, the ROI is just not there. If, on the other hand, you provide $5,000 paint jobs and/or six-figure restorations, then these are a must.

We’ve been using these around the shop for a couple months now. Power on the Rupes Skorpio III sanders is excellent, and the is delivered with smooth performance. This sander does the work for you, and they have a soft start as well.

Click for more information on the RUPES Skorpio III Line of Sanders.