Has Anyone Used Planex on Wood?

[onocoffee]

I realize that the Planex is designed for drywall, but since the 225mm abrasives are also Granat, I was wondering about the Planex's application as a wood sander? Floors or big tables? If 150mm is great, then 225mm must be better, right?

At the very least, it might make for a humorous YouTube video.

 

[woodferret]

As long as you're not expecting it to flatten wood, go right ahead.

 

[Cheese]

I've used the LHS 2 225 to sand down the T&G joints on a Durastrand sub floor. Normally, I'd perform that operation with a belt sander but the Planex with some 100 Granat did a fine job. And it's so easy to do compared to the belt sander.  [big grin] Just walk around and the integral LED light will let you see when you're finished. Actually, I think it did a better job than the belt sander because it doesn't cup the joints like the belt sander can if you're not careful.

Here's a before & after.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

I also used the Planex to sand down some OSB I hung on the garage wall to hang the garden & lawn tools on. The only issue is that some small, thin shards of material will lodge themselves between the Granat paper and the interface pad and sometimes between the interface pad and the backer pad. At that point the interface pad needs to be removed and the shards cleaned out.

It'd be interesting to try this on a hardwood floor using 40 or 60 grit.  [smile] Here are the shards I was referring to.

[attachimg=3]

 

[Ebuwan]

I've used it on a brand new qtr saw/rift sawn white oak floor.

BUT not by itself.

I bought 24Grit paper for the Planex, Sapphir. As stated above, it will not flatten the floor. I'd imagine with the 24 Grit, and the suction turned all the way up, it "could" flatten the flooring, but it would literally takes days to do it. I know, cuz i attempted this, without a raking light. I thought "wow, looks great!", then i threw down a raking light, was almost like the sander did jack crap.

Not all is lost though.

What I ended up doing is, on my hands and knees, flattening the flooring with a Rotex 150 on geared mode with 24grit paper. I've had Festool for years and it was literally the first time I used one (bought it cuz of this floor project). Wow, what a beast. I got the "Oh Sh17!" handle (495188), which let me use it with all my weight on it. Took me about 2 hours to flatten the floor in a sunroom, hallway, Bedroom with a decent sized closet. I'm also 42 years old. It wasn't too bad, was a good workout.

After flattening with the Rotex and 24 grit, i moved to the Planex, with the extra pad (205418), suction and speed at full, and worked my way up to 100 grit (36, 60, 80, 100). Worked awesome after the Rotex flattening. It was especially enjoyable after having just flattened while down on my hands and knees, so maybe my mood being able to stand and just move it around was biased? lol

To note; This was with the newer Planex (Random Orbit). I have the original Planex, which I used for flattening down variation between sections of subfloor, as I care less about that machine now.

 

[onocoffee]

I am inspired by you guys.

This thought came about because I ran across a guy selling a used Planex LHS225-EQ-Plus-USA in the original Systainer (I imagine it's at least 20 years old) for $500. I don't know how well these sanders last or what it might really be worth at that age - and it looks like it's seen a lot of drywall.

Thanks!

 

[mattgam]

I used mine to sand the old finish off a 1200 sqft deck made of ipe.  Was so much easier on the back!

 

[Cheese]

I am inspired by you guys.

This thought came about because I ran across a guy selling a used Planex LHS225-EQ-Plus-USA in the original Systainer (I imagine it's at least 20 years old) for $500. I don't know how well these sanders last or what it might really be worth at that age - and it looks like it's seen a lot of drywall.

Thanks!

It's not as old as you think...it was released in the US in 2013.

Having said that, Festool Recon has in the past offered the 1st model for around $375-$450 and that's cleaned up and with a 1 year warranty.

[attachimg=1]

 

[smorgasbord]

The painters I've used in the past, who have done a good job on my outside clear-finished wood, tried the Planex on the floor in the room with the Murphy Bed. It didn't go well, and I think they ended up just using a ETS/EC 150. The RO 150 would have been better. The issue was that the finish already on the floor being abraded away was really hard and so difficult to sand away.

And while the floor looks good in that photo in the project thread, they made the mistake of not using the hard pad, so it's a bit uneven, and depending how the light hits it you can see the undulations from hard/soft grain, which is a bummer to me. I recently redid some steps that are of the same wood and previous finish, and they turned out much better. There's a reason floor finishers use the tools they do, but I didn't want to sand away that much material this early in their life.

 

[HighlandMarine]

I use the planex with an interface pad to remove antifouling and sand boat bottoms.