Other than an orbital sander being circular and a finish being square, I was wondering if there are any other differences. If I already own an orbital one, does it make sense to add a finish one to the portfolio? I am currently doing some antique doorway and window trim restoration, I chemically removed the paint and now doing final polishes before I stain and lacquer.
How is a finish sander different than an orbital sander
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An advantage of the disk over the belt is that you can control how aggressive the sanding is by moving the point of contact between the edge of the disk (where the speed is highest) and the middle (where it is lowest). The downside of the disk sander (pun intended) is you can only safely use the half of the disk that is pushing the work down onto the table. This means the disk works well for fairing convex curves. (If you need to sand concave shapes, you need yet another machine, a spindle sander.)
For smoothing long edges, the belt sander is better since you can work the full width of the belt. It would depend on the machine, but generally belts should be easier to change than adhesive disks.
Finally, by having the dual purpose machine you can set up both a coarse grit on the disk sander, and a finer grit on the belt sander to avoid having to change belts on a belt-only sander.
Release the paper-clamp latches. There will be one or two latches on both sides of the sander. For that model, they probably look like this (note the 2 red arrows, showing the release motion):
Pull the folded-over edges, of the sandpaper, out from under the clamps.
That model may use velcro paper, so expect that you might have to peel the sandpaper off of the base plate.
Replace with the same style and size (length/width) of paper. Assemble in reverse order. Pre-creasing the folded edges works best for getting the edge under the clamps.
You can find manuals at http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Service/ServiceCenters.aspx.
Here is a manual for a similar palm sander (pdf) (AKA "Finishing Sander").
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Best Answer
Anything that sands across the grain on wood puts scratches in the growth rings that can be hard to remove.
Orbital sanders are good for removing homogenous materials like paint where you don't want a pattern to the marks left by the sand paper. As you use finer paper, the random action leaves finer scratches till the surface is smooth.
Finish sanding on wood is a bit different, you want a straight line sander so the abrasive cuts parallel to the wood grain so you can get a smoother surface.
Also, Finish Sanders are available with Random Orbital Action. If you've ever been in a car paint shop, you know it as a DA or Dual Action Sander. The pad is loosely coupled to the orbital mechanism so it doesn't produce spiral cuts in the finish but has a random combination of straight and orbital motion.