MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Looking at sanding down all the dark oak beams and windowsills in our house so I'm looking for a cheap but decent orbital sander to do the job, any recommendations??
When I stripped all of the woodwork in our current house I bought a cheap one from Screwfix. It died within its warranty from overuse. They replaced it twice, the final one has done very irregular service but still going strong.
My advice would be to buy the basic one with a decent warranty and not care about whether it survives.
I have a JCB one from bnq
Was cheap
Works well
Been very abused over the years.
McAllister from Screwfix. Pads from Amazon. I have done 24 doors. It is still working perfectly.
Mine is from Aldi. £15 with pads from ebay. It's done a dozen doors and all the banisters in a 4 story house. Still works fine.
Cheers all, given me a few options to look at!
Buy a random orbital sander rather than just an orbital sander. The random motion leaves less obvious swirls. I bought a cheap random one around £35 with some discs. Works well if you sand in steps with the different grades of sand paper.
Buy loads of discs off fleabay or Amazon. The whole job will go massively quicker with fresh discs and they go off quite quickly.
An orbital sander with a 60 grit pad will eat oak and leave circles all over it, better with a reciprocal sander or if its in bits and you don't need to get into corners a belt sander with a 120 belt on, those go with the grain of the wood.
If you get scratches across the grain sanding them out by hand is murder, if it's to remove gloss paint it will clog the sandpaper pretty quick and eat pads, better to strip the paint first, worth doing if you want it to look good in future.
A good restoration tip for bare wood is don't sand, as soon as you cut through the surface you are committed to sanding it to a new finish, massive job and if not done well looks hellish, it looked good once and all that happened was years of dirt, most times you can clean that back to a mellowed original finish with a scotchbrite pad from Tesco and some soapy water, an old towel to continually dry it and wipe off the grime.
Buy loads of discs off fleabay or Amazon. The whole job will go massively quicker with fresh discs and they go off quite quickly.
We used to do this, but the cheap ones tend to be a bit rubbish and as you say go off quite quickly. On the other hand sanding mesh discs last for ages, can be washed out when you clog them with paint/varnish/polish and let dust extraction work properly so they work out costing about the same but get the job done in half the time and without the mess. It works out a bit cheaper if you buy a sander that can take Abranet from a roll.
The correct answer is to not sand as you'll be there forever.
No one said heatgun yet ?
Don't know what the finish is to take off so..
Heat guns are horrible in use, fumes are toxic and leave scorch marks if you go too heavy, better with old style methylene chloride for paint, and big box of 00 steel wool...and a proper vented mask...and goggles because if you get it flick in your eye it nips like hell.
Well sure if your incompetent anything can mess up the finish.
I don't know about alternative tools for the job, but, I have a £30 vonhaus that's done good service, vonhaus are presumably just a rebrander but seem fairly consistently "cheap but just about good enough to do the job", I've had a few tools from them and none of them have ever been terrible.
The problem with all the brand's named above is that if you have any issues with them then they become landfill - there isn't somebody in the back of Screwfix repairing them.
Bosch's blue range is fully supported for spare parts. I have a GSS280 and a GSS140 palm sander that are ~20 years old. Both have had replacement base plates, abrasive clamps and motor brushes over the years. They don't tick the budget box though.
Abranet is very good. It's definitely worth getting quality abrasives over cheap stuff which is a false economy imho.
However, Abranet is fairly delicate if you catch an edge with it. It's all I use when I'm working on nice flat materials.
I'd use standard type discs if what you're sanding has any heavy dips and cracks(like a lot of old beams do) as you'll most likely catch edges a few times and rip the discs.
Also, get a pad saver, especially if you're using a cheap sander. It's like an additional velcro layer so you don't kill the velcro on the main machine pad if you're sanding aggressively.
Mirka do them.
Rest Express are who I use for abrasives. They sell the pad savers too.
If they're Oak beams and you plan to refinish them, Osmo 425 Oak tint oil makes Oak look gurt lush.
Well sure if your incompetent anything can mess up the finish.
I used to be a french polisher, half of the jobs were customer attempts gone wrong.
Can anyone suggest the best way to strip varnish from a pine dining room chair with round spindles and legs??Currently using Nitromors and elbow grease which is taking ages.
^^^ Get it dipped maybe?
Can anyone suggest the best way to strip varnish from a pine dining room chair with round spindles and legs??Currently using Nitromors and elbow grease which is taking ages.
DoT4 brake fluid is very effective at stripping varnish off floors......
Can anyone suggest the best way to strip varnish from a pine dining room chair with round spindles and legs??Currently using Nitromors and elbow grease which is taking ages.
Methylene chloride, which is what Nitromors is a weak user friendly version of, it's only really used by trade but I found some on ebay not so long ago, use as per Nitromorse but it actually does something.
If it's old cellulose varnish it comes off very easily but I'm guessing it's not if the Nitromors didn't work, some modern sprays are hard work, use towels after putting the stripper on and be patient, a few applications wrapped up with a towel then poly bag over all taped up, tricky and messy but if you just do that rather than spend ages scrubbing at it, it works out quicker, if you get it right the final time you take it off the finish will be stuck to the towel rather than the chair.
Methylene chloride
Is a carcinogen and not suitable for DIY. Respirator's/ 'masks' don't work with MeCL2.