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I am finding that the older I get the less able my hands, arms, etc. are to sand drywall!! I am looking to purchase a powered sander with vacuum and wonder if anyone has any advice to give me on brands? The only two that I am finding in catalogs are Porter Cable and one called a Love-Less. I do mainly one-man remodelling jobs etc. as opposed to entire homes, and don’t do any commercial projects. Any ideas?
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Bought the Porter Cable not too long ago, works like a charm, a little on the noisy side, though. Sanding is still a crappy job, but at least were finished alot faster.
........Sandy
*Dave,I have the Porter Cable sander, but not the P.C. vacum. It works as advertized with my shop vac and a hepa filter. You still nedd to hand sand up in the corners. The learning curve is real short; high rpm, wrong grit paper = repair.Dave
*How about finishing the drywall off smooth with know ridges then you dont have to sand, problem solved.
*I just use a floor sander.
*Yeah, right.
*Chris- I find it impossible to do mudding without leaving some ridges- in fact to do things in the right order and to build up in the right places you kinda have to leave ridges. I do spend the time when mudding to make things as smooth as possible, but efficiency dictates that you can't keep messing around with wet mud- it's usually best to get a good coat (NOT thick) applied, move on, finish what you can do today, and then leave it alone to completely dry. Come back the the next day, sand as necessary, put on next coat etc.........Most people shoot for three coats=done. My 2 cents. Cheers- Ken
*My dad has used the PC sander for a few bigger drywall jobs and likes it. Pretty dust-free and quick. He rents it from a local rental place, since he doesn't do drywall all the time and the sander w/ vac is a little pricey. I'd suggest seeing if you can rent one to try out... and if you like it and can justify the expense, make the purchase. You might want to do a search of the archives... I think there are some past discussions on these sanders. Hope that helps.
*Ken,Thin your mud a little bit, and break in your knives by slightly easing the corners with a stone. I almost never need to sand between coats because I take particular care not leave any ridges. I hate to sand and that is the second reason I bought the PC sander. The first reason is that 90% of my work is remodeling and I get almost no complaints anymore about the mess I cause. It is also a lot easier on me. I think I have processed enough drywall dust through my respiratory system to have exceeded some OSHA limits. :)
*Chris, I suppose you have also learned to get the first coat smooth so you don't have to waste time putting on a second and third coat?T
*Dave- Learned from work buddies to always to always batch up mud out of the box w/some water like you say- hate dragging mud. I'm mostly remodeling, too. Remember hearing something before about rounding knife corners, so I'm gonna do it now! I've used the PC and it was actually a pleasure without the dust- not any fine control and a bit like holding a bazooka, but for larger jobs and especially ceilings it's the sh*t!.........Thanks for the pointers. :o) Ken
*My boss absolutely hates any ridges. The way he taught me to do it is to bend my twelve inch knife so that there is about an eighth of an inch hump in the middle. Then, when applying the mud on your second coat run down the edges flexing your knife. Use the right side of the knife for the right side of the mud, left for left. Then run the knife down the middle applying enough pressure to take some of the flex out. This should leave you ridgeless. It takes some time to get the feel of it, but it allows you to just run over your mud between coats with a flat six inch knife to knock down any little frups (regional term?), and you only have to sand after your final coat. The same technique can be used in corners by applying pressure to the edge of the knife away from the corner. And oh yes, there is no better way to sand than with the PC sander. Just started to use those corner sander sponges that HD sells, they seem to work quite well too. Peace,CaseyP.S. If I didn't do a good enough job of explaining the mudding process let me know, I'll try to give it in more detail.
*Casey,You did pretty good. I don't deliberately bend any of my knives, but use about the same technique. Mostly I think it is just experience and finding what works for you. I always tell the newbies that I can give them all the lessons they need to finish dw in under two hours, but it may take them from 200 to 2000 more hours to become "good". Some never learn. Most of them tell me "you sure make it look easier than it really is". I take it as a compliment, and never let them know how many years it took to "make it look easy".Dave
*Casey- Thanks for the well illustrated tips! I've also learned to pay attention to angle of my knife as far as stiffness, creating a slight hump when you need to, making the mud level flush, etc. I'm by no means a drywaller, just remodeler, but this is essential stuff for the old bag of tricks. -Ken
*A sort of half-way related suggstion for something I've done - If you use a shop vac for drywall dust, use a spare hose on the exhaust side and run it out a window. Keeps the dust outside that the filter doesn't get.
*Do you guys use taping mud for the first couple coats, then finish with topping mud? Or do you use that lightweight all purpoe mud throughout, or what? I end up sanding a lot more than I'd like to, but professional tapers don't seem to sand much, mostly just before the final coat, I'm always amazed. I think I'll give those power sanders a try next time.What about outside corners? Do any of you still use metal corners, or has everyone switched over to those plastic tape on corners now? I saw a demonstration of them at JLC Live last fall and they look sweet - very little mud, practically indestructible...I have the literature around here somewhere...
*Jim- Yeah, taping mud, Beadex in the yellow box. Workin' buddy got it for one of our jobs, recommendo by local pro 'Maurice'. But I forget the difference from reg. mud. I wouldn't bother unless there was a lot of taping to do.........I still just use metal, have seen that plastic stuff reviewed/advertised and sounds very interesting. Maybe GTS has it in TumH2o. -Ken (still mudding coat by coat)
*GTS would at least know about it, for sure, Ken. This stuff I saw was really impressive. I think he put a thin coat of mud on the wall, then bedded the corner on that, knived on a thin coat over the tape and said it was done. The most impressive thing was, he grabbed the handle of a sanding pole like a baseball bat, took a healthy swing and whacked the corner. Made a heck of a racket, but didn't even leave a dent. He claimed the reason corners crack was because of all the mud we use on them. I have a pretty big job to tape in a few months, I'm gonna look into this stuff.