Hi all,
I am working on a weekender with my wife and we decided top put in a pine floor. I’m a pretty experienced carpenter but don’t have a lot (none) of experience sanding wood floors. Knowing this I put some flooring in a small room, rented a drum sander and tried my hand. The floor as you might expect has a lot dips from where the sander started or stopped or I accidentally touched the floor. I tried to have the sander moving forward before it touched the floor and to keep it moving until I was out of the cut, but that theory is not that easy to practice with walls in the way.
So my questions:
1) Is there something about using a drum sander that I’m missing or is it just hard? My experience says any tool that hard to use has an operator problem.
2) A belt sander would seem to be a better tool for this type of job but none of the rental houses seem to carry them. I live in Texas by the way. Opinions? Sources of sanders in the Austin TX area?
Thanks in advance.
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Replies
greg,
there are flat pad oscillating sanders. These are much more forgiving to the novice. You can't take down dips and high spots as easy, but you won't groove it out unless to try hard.
Also, a 4 or 5 disc orbital sander is reported to do a better job for those not able to handle the drum.
If all else fails, look for a drum sander that has a drum lift. You bring the drum up with a lever b/4 you stop and lower with the lever after you start. Easier to get the hang of.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
like calvin suggested, try the newer orbital style sanders. most rental stores do carry those. i'm a novice and a 'girl', and i managed to do agood job with no damage to the floor. the floors i was doinng were at least 80 yrs old and covered with 3 thick layers of paint. it got expensive, as the sandpaper loaded up with paint really fast, but if you are doing new wood it should be great. the one i rented was made by Varathane (they make polyurethane floor finishes). it was called the "easy V". the various models i've seen only have 3 pads, but they did a good job. i'd like to try the 5 pads model and see the difference.
Edited 7/17/2005 10:55 am ET by MSM
Refinished my floors a few years back. I had the same problem, everytime that I dropped the sander on the floor it would leave a divot. I talked to a local hardwood guy and he said it was the rental equipment. The rental drums are not balanced properly. If a drum that he owns get out of balace he has it fixed immediately or he replaces the drum.
Have not taken him up on offer of borrowing his sanders to refinish. Kids are 4 and 6 so I figure to give it some time.
Owen Roberts Group
10634 East Riverside Drive # 100
Bothell, WA 98011
http://www.owenrobertsgroup.com
Here is a link to a cheat sheet that Splinter and I prepared some time ago to help someone DIY their floor sanding, using only rental equipment. We posted it as a thread at the time but it'll be lost in the depth of the archives by now!
The difference between the rental machines and a commercial machine like a Hummel is that the rental is much more aggressive because to counteract its much lighter weight than commercial machines it revs a lot faster.
The best way is to practice before starting serious sanding. Put on a 60# grit belt and sand with the grain in the middle of a floor -- keeping well away from the walls at each end. What you have to master is the trick of taking the drum off the floor and lowering it on while the machine is moving
The orbital pad machine is much easier but it takes much longer to sand off existing coatings
IanDG