Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Jun 02, 1999 06:50am | #1

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   Joe , I'm no refinishing expert but I would say a good right angle RO sander like a Porter Cable or Dewalt etc , should work fine .You will have to do the inside corners by hand ,I'd use a sharp paint scraper then hand sand .Just be careful on the nosing , a RO sander with coarse paper will remove wood in a hurry on an edge .You may be a little optomistic on the time as you will probably want to work up to at least 150 grit . Change paper often as it will load up quickly and you may want to use a sander with dust collection ,it will still be incredibly dusty so wear a good dust mask. Hope this helps ,Chuck

1. 
   Guest_ | Jun 02, 1999 08:44am | #2

   *Joe - Chuck gives good advice here. I wouldn't be surprised if it took 1 hour per tread, depending on what shape they are in. If you are not used to those orbital sanders, practice on something else first, great tools, but like Chuck said, they canremove material in a hurry. - yb

2. 
   Hi_Brian | Jun 02, 1999 06:38pm | #3

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   HI Joe

   Just did my own 30 yo stair case, a 7 tread job, took me abot 45 minutes a tread for the job I wanted. I replaced the ballisters, newel, and the railing with some new ones from my millwork co. The previous owners had it carpeted so there were about 600 tacks I had to remove.(I bought the house for the lot!!)

   Make sure you enclose the area with a platic wall to prevent the dust from circulating, turn off your furnace fan if you have one, construction dust can rally ruin the heat exchangers on a furnace.

   Good luck

   Gerard Yankowski

1. 
   JoeT | Jun 04, 1999 05:19am | #4

   *Thanks to everyone for the advice. It brings up another question, though. I was thinking of possibly getting a Bosch 3725, which is a pistol-grip type of ROS. Do you think this is heavy-duty enough to do the job? It got a pretty good review in FWW last year. Thanks again for your time.

3. 
   JoeT | Jun 04, 1999 08:31am | #5

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   I'd like to refinish an oak staircase
   in my home, and I'm wondering if a
   heavy-duty random orbit sander would be
   an appropriate tool to use in this
   situation? Does 60-grit seem about the
   right coarseness for starting the job
   (given the stairs have the normal
   amount of wear and tear)? Averaging it
   out, about how much time is usually
   spent per stair on the intial sanding?
   Is 10 minutes of sanding per
   tread/riser way off base? Thanks for
   any advice you could give.

4. 
   Guest_ | Jun 04, 1999 08:31am | #6

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   Joe, the posts above give good advise, I use the 6" Porter-Cable ROS ($150), with the vac attachment coupled to a Fein Turbo Vac ($200). Chase the edges with a Fein detail sander ($185), and it speeds the process. Heavy sanding is done by the P-C with 90% or more of the dust collected. You'll need 60, 80 or 100, 120 or 150, and 220 grit papers.