Although I realize there are other more proper ways to strip/remove old stain/varnishes from wood, I am sorta eager to give my new Festo RO sanders a whirl with the dust collector.
Just trying to get a minimum starting grit for old finish removal because I will be getting the discs in 50 or 100 packs and don’t want to make any unnecessary purchases.
I will get the 9-hole hook/loop discs from Festo but I find their chart not very helpful. (The prices are surprisingly reasonable.)
Most of the finishes in this 1950s era ranch are on exterior doors, window sills, cabinets (mostly site built during construction), all with some sort of stain/varnish.
The kitchen cabinets needs a good washdown to take care of a light coat of grime – it gummed up the 180-grit paper that came with the sander in no time.
There is a small patch of harwood floor that was water stained that I am also eager to tackle – the floor seems to have a wax finish.
Thanks for any suggestions on grit sizes.
Replies
80 grit for material removal and then120 to smooth it out if you are just painting then you wont need to use the 120. on the floor i would use a belt sander first or maybe even take the finish of with a chemical stripper first. i have seen floor finish ruin a five dollar sanding belt in about 10 seconds
re - i have seen floor finish ruin a five dollar sanding belt in about 10 seconds
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Yes, I found out with the grime coated kitchen cabinets....
At the moment I have only 180 grit designed for painted surfaces and the disc gummed up in no time.
Started out on the entry door with what appears to be a polyurathane top coat and the disc did ok on that.
What I will probably do is get 36 grit as the coarsest and get an assortment of finer.
Thanks for the reply.
36 is too heavy. 40 or 60 should be fine for first time over. Then move on up through. I would buy a box of 40, 80, and 120.
80 will probably be good enough for the floor but you'll want to get to 100 or 120 with finer stuff like doors and woodwork.
Excellence is its own reward!
Thank-you ! Piffin -
I'm always greatful for your helpful replies, which seems to always come through sooner or later.
Yes, the 36 grit seems to be not such a good idea.
Also getting similar suggestions as yours in Knots.
Yours is more specific about grit selection for my first batch of purchases so I'll go with that and followup with a wider selection later.
I just don't have any frame of reference with zero experience in buying discs.
Very anxious to put these (costly) sanders to good use.
I just bought a couple of packs (50 discs each I think) of Porter Cable velcro RO disks, and I can't wait until they wear out so I can buy something with quality. I bought 80, 120 and (I think) 220 and have used the first two. Pretty dark red color. But...it looks like they started with stick-on disks and applied a piece of fabric that sticks to the sander velcro. Works well until you peel it off the use a different grit, and frequently the fabric peels away from the sanding disk. Also, they don't seem to last long at all. They cut well when new, but that doesn't last long.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Elcid72 -
Sorry to hear of your bad experience with the discs.
Just ordered 100 sheet packs of 100, 150 and 220 grit "Brilliant" from Festo. They have 9 holes (8 plus one center) and are velcro.
$26.50/box, we'll see how well they hold up.
Edited 6/9/2003 7:36:28 PM ET by Ahneedhelp