Deltex 93 makes a great FLOOR sander!

[Toolpig]

Well, not for the "entire" floor, of course.

Normally, I'd pull off the shoe moulding on the baseboards and use my ROTEX 150 to edge-sand around the room and then use the rented floor sander to do the rest. 

However, yesterday I got lazy and decided to try edge-sanding without removing the shoe moulding.  The ROTEX wouldn't work because the bumper didn't have a flat surface to ride against and the pad was chewing up the shoe.  So I pulled out my Deltex 93 and used is to sand right up to the edge of the shoe mouldings.  PERFECT!!  It takes a bit longer to edge sand with the DELTEX, but now I don't have remove all the shoe moulding and reinstall it (or cut and install new as the old stuff is pretty brittle).  I saved a LOT of time with that little beast!

Worked great in the corners too with 40-grit Saphir!

TP

 

[Bob Marino]

The Deltex is quite the tool for the job! One of Festool's hidden gems, yet, does seem to be selling  more lately. Hopefully, that sander will get the Plug It cord one of these days/wekks/months....

Bob

 

[Toolpig]

AMEN on the plug-it cord!! 

When you're down on your knees sanding a floor, the last thing you want to do is get up and walk over to the vacuum in order to change sanders.

TP

The Deltex is quite the tool for the job! One of Festool's hidden gems, yet, does seem to be selling  more lately. Hopefully, that sander will get the Plug It cord one of these days/wekks/months....

Bob

 

[bill-e]

Very interesting.  I've got a wide board pine floor I've been putting off cuz I'm trying to locate one of those Varathane 3 disc floor sanders for the job.  This floor would require me to go right up to the molding as there is no shoe molding in my house.

 

[Toolpig]

Bill, whatever you do... do NOT use the Varathane 3-disc sander.  It's an absolute piece of crap!  The machine bucks around, does not get tight enough to the wall, and does an absolutely horrible job of sanding -- especially if the floor hasn't been done in a long time and has stains, ground-in dirt,  etc.

Also, the dust collection is a joke (although I hooked it up to my CT22 and the dust-collection was much improved).  Also, the Varathane uses proprietary 7" abrasives that you can only find at Lowe's, where they rent the machine.  Also, the quality of the abrasives is sub par -- old style "garnet" type paper I think.

You're much better off the with 4 pad "U-sand" machine that they rent at Home Depot et al.  Much better dust collection, 6" abrasives are easy to find (you could even use some of your 6" ROTEX pads if you like), and they supply "scuffing pads" for screening in-between coats of poly.

Just trying to save you some heartache (and money).  I don't usually bag on tools, but this one is wicked horrible!

TP

Very interesting.  I've got a wide board pine floor I've been putting off cuz I'm trying to locate one of those Varathane 3 disc floor sanders for the job.  This floor would require me to go right up to the molding as there is no shoe molding in my house.

 

[bill-e]

Thanks!  Good info.  The floor is 12" pine so I didn't want to use a drum sander.  So the HD one is also a disk sander and is it at least 12" wide?  I do have some spots where I need to take of a lot of material too.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Toolpig]

My floors were all fairly flat, so material removal was not really an issue for me.  For serious material removal, you're probably better off with the drum sander.  The U-sand machine has 4 ROS pads that do a good job of eliminating scratches and swirl marks, but not so much for flattening boards.  Perhaps a combination of the drum sander for flattening and the U-Sand and ROTEX for finer grits might be a way to go.

Here's a link to the company that makes the U-sand (I'm not affiliated with them but have spoken with them on the phone a few times -- good people!).
http://cherryhillmfg.com/

Just be careful if you decide to use the drum sander!  You can really gouge a floor with those things.

TP

Thanks!  Good info.  The floor is 12" pine so I didn't want to use a drum sander.  So the HD one is also a disk sander and is it at least 12" wide?  I do have some spots where I need to take of a lot of material too.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Trevor H]

I agree with toolpig, on the drum sander. You really aren't taking off as much of the pine as you think. A 12" disc sander sounds painful on a pine floor. I would go with toolpig's advice. Use a hummel or a clarke sander for the main area then if you don't want to use an edger, pull out your rotex and use the deltex in the corners.  From a flooring professionals point of view, drum sand, edge, then pull out the festools to fine sand. If your scared to use the drum sander because of horror stories then just use the rotex.

good luck

 

[bill-e]

I'm not at all intimidated by the drum sander as I've done many a hardwood floor.  My concern with the pine is simply the width of the boards, 12".  I thought I could get better flatness results with the disc sander.  I assume Hummel and Clarke are the standard chrome plated drum sanders .  I tried one of the pad sanders before and it was useless.  Might be great for scuffing up a finish but not to take one off and remove some wood.

I'll just go with the drum sander which is a local option for me as well.

 

[bill-e]

If your scared to use the drum sander because of horror stories then just use the rotex.

hmm, I wonder how long it would take to do a 12x14' room with my RO125?

 

[Trevor H]

Too long, i can say that! good luck bill. I think you'll make the right choice using the drum. The Hummel has three settings where the clarke doesn't as far as i know. you can also get a 12" hummel instead of an 8" if that helps at all. It may not be an option to rent, but if your lucky you'll find one. The thing i found about 12" disc sander is if you hit pitch your smearing that junk every where. If you use the belt then your avoiding a lot of mess!

Have fun sanding Bill.