i just purchased an ETS 125 sander for my woodshop. I was just wondering if anyone has ever used one of these to refinish a marble tile floor. Our shower floor is covered with marble tiles that have been etched by the hard water and the soap/cleaners. Anyone ever do something like this? If so what would you use to do the job? Thanks
Refinishing Marble Floor
- Thread starter wilde737
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wilde737 said:
I'm sure others on here are more knowledgeable than me but, I would use the Platin 2 polishing pads starting at 500 grit and work your way up to 4000 grit. I don't think that the ETS 125 is the right sander for the job though, I would use one of the Rotex sanders in the Rotex mode. I bought some of these pads to do my fireplace marble and I have the RO 90 Rotex sander. I haven't gotten to the fireplace yet but, the Platine 2 did a great job on my opaque Acura headlight covers which are now looking like new [big grin]
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I'm glad that worked, Jack!
I was just talking to Rob today and he was wondering how it worked out on your tiles?
Tom
I was just talking to Rob today and he was wondering how it worked out on your tiles?
Tom
Tom Bellemare said:
Tom,
I used the 4000 to make sure that it didn't come out any worst - which it didn't. I have been looking for my leftover material to practice on but, I haven't had enough time lately.
I'll post the results as soon as I get to it, thanks for the suggestions.
Jack
I would be interested to know how you made out. I have polished concrete with big 200# terrazzo machines. I am wondering how a small handheld sander such as the RO 90 would work. You will generate a lot more dust than you might expect with sanding wood, so , in my opinion, you should probably be using 36mm vac hose. Just a guess on my part.
Marble is a stone with varyations in hardness, even within one piece of stone. It is my guess that you might want to use the hard pad on your RO 90/125/160 to keep the paper riding level across the stone.
Tinker
Marble is a stone with varyations in hardness, even within one piece of stone. It is my guess that you might want to use the hard pad on your RO 90/125/160 to keep the paper riding level across the stone.
Tinker
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My experience also with sanding softer stone, like limestone, is that you make a lot of dust. Although I haven't noticed that it requires a lot different dust extraction with the Festool sanders and dust extractors.
Normally, with wood, big grit size means big pieces of wood and wood fiber. My experience with soft stone is that it means a lot of dust.
Tom
Tom Bellemare said:
I agree Tom, when the guys installed my granite counter tops the house was filled with fine dust even though they tented the kitchen. that is one of the reasons that I have not yet attempted my marble fireplace, my wife has a long memory [eek]
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Jack:
I think that if you slow the speed of the sander and increase the speed of the CT, you'll be alright.
Tom
I think that if you slow the speed of the sander and increase the speed of the CT, you'll be alright.
Tom
Tom Bellemare said:
Thanks Tom,
I did use the 4000 grit to even out the Wipe-On Poly finish yesterday on Honduras Mahogany and the result was fantastic. I need to get you an order for the Platin 2 for my ETS 150/3 sander soon. I have been so busy with golf and other woodworking projects the marble has taken a back seat for now.
Jack
Here's a copy of a letter I sent to another WW'ing friend a few years ago. A true story that jacko might relate to. Anything stone related (concrete in this tale) can raise a heck of a lot of dust. Much finer than wood dust and in apparently greater quantities.
John,
I told you I had a story about rough concrete. From our little conference, I am sure you will get a kick out of it. I darned near got a real kick out of it.
The old garage had been closed in to make a TV/family room. The builder was a good friend and the homeowners were a couple of cranky, but lots of fun Vermonters transposed into the more civilized (?) town of Wilton, Ct. My job was to do the masonry for a newly located garage and to pour a smooth floor in the refinished area mentioned above. Everything was going smoothly and on the day I was to pour the interior slab (No heat in the room yet, only ductwork had been installed) my first load of concrete arrived right on time, about 8 am on a nice warm and sunny day. I felt I was in great shape to finish up before the late afternoon temp would drop to upper twenties and later that nite it would be in the lower twenties and windy. With no heat and windows only poly ethelene tacked on, it would be just a tad on the cool side later on. I figured that by the time the first load was off loaded, the second one would be arriving and I would be able to finish troweling by around two or three o’clock, cover the finished slab with poly and straw and be homefree with a good job well done.
By 9 we had the first load all screeded, but I was nervous. NO SECOND LOAD in sight. By the time I had finished the final troweling on the first load, there was still no second load. Since you have been in construction a day or two, I need not describe the thoughts that were going thru my head, or the comments I was building up to by the time I was able to get to a phone next door. By three o’clock and many phone calls burning the wires, I finally decided to call another company I had never dealt with before. The new supplier was finally able to send out a truck at about 4pm. By then, the temp had already dropped to below freezing and the wind was going thru everything. At 5pm, the truck arrived and we completed the pour. I ended up staying up all nite with the concrete and was finally met with the realization it was freezing faster than I could work it and I ended up with a mass of ridges all over that second half of the pour. Gouges showed up later as the surface just peeled away like blisters a few days later when it finally warmed up and thawing commenced.
The next morning, I spoke with the owners, explaining what had happened and assured them, I would fix it. They were going to be away over Christmas vacation. Going on a ski trip back to VT. They gave me a key to the house and I ordered a rental terrazzo machine to grind the floor.
While I was waiting for my helper to pick up the grinder, I sealed off both doors into the next rooms. The day was uneventful and boring as we ran that dust manufacturing machine for most of 8 hours finally arriving at a surface I felt acceptable for a vinyl tile floor to be applied, returned the machine and went home to relax. I actually probably had a good solid week of relaxation with wife & kids. Most of my work was shut down for the winter and I was into sheetrock taping on a couple of small jobs.
On January 2nd, I was visiting a couple of friends and having a couple of beers when the builder from the rough floor job drives in to the yard. He walks into the house and heads straight for me. “Call the Jones’s right away (not their real name)” and he walks out. I wasn’t too bothered but decided to go outside and catch Bob before he got away. “Is there a problem?” I asked. Bob was the sort for whom a four word sentence was a major undertaking. “Just call them. You better do it now.” And he drove off.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, as Mr. Homeowner answered his phone.
“This house is a mess. There is white dust on everything. The beds. The kitchen. The closets. Every piece of clothing is covered and even the pockets are full of dust. We have the whole house torn apart and we are cleaning everything.” It was then that it dawned on me that the heat ducts had been installed between the day of the pour and the day of the grinding. There was not a spot in that house that did not suffer the consequences of my little over sight. “Steve, I’ll be right over to give you a hand.”
“Tinker, if I see your face, I will kill you with my bare hands. You stay the hell away.”
The next day, I figured Steve had cooled down enough that I might escape with only a few broken arms and legs and went over to visit, if for nothing more than to offer my deepest apologies. Steve & his wife had, by then, cooled down; or maybe they were just too tired to stay angry. They described their horror as they had walked into their house after a long drive from way up in Vermont. They were tired and hoping to open a can of soup, devour the contents and just go to bed. As it turned out, they had stayed up all nite cleaning house. Good people tho. They were actually laughing as they related their tale of woe. I wasn’t quite sure whether they were laughing about the fun they had had with their housecleaning, or they were just overjoyed over the fact that I looked so uncomfortable.
We stayed friends for many more years. I did a few more concrete jobs for them and when I retired from the masonry trade, I mowed their lawn and cared for their shrubs for a couple of years until both husband & wife retired and took over for themselves. Their oldest son was a good friend and I helped him out of many a jamb over the next few years until he grew up to adopt an attitude of responsibility. We have all had some good laughs over the story and every time I tell the tale, or hear it from them, I consider how fortunate I was, and am, to have made such a huge error for such wonderful people with a such a sense of humor.
Tinker
John,
I told you I had a story about rough concrete. From our little conference, I am sure you will get a kick out of it. I darned near got a real kick out of it.
The old garage had been closed in to make a TV/family room. The builder was a good friend and the homeowners were a couple of cranky, but lots of fun Vermonters transposed into the more civilized (?) town of Wilton, Ct. My job was to do the masonry for a newly located garage and to pour a smooth floor in the refinished area mentioned above. Everything was going smoothly and on the day I was to pour the interior slab (No heat in the room yet, only ductwork had been installed) my first load of concrete arrived right on time, about 8 am on a nice warm and sunny day. I felt I was in great shape to finish up before the late afternoon temp would drop to upper twenties and later that nite it would be in the lower twenties and windy. With no heat and windows only poly ethelene tacked on, it would be just a tad on the cool side later on. I figured that by the time the first load was off loaded, the second one would be arriving and I would be able to finish troweling by around two or three o’clock, cover the finished slab with poly and straw and be homefree with a good job well done.
By 9 we had the first load all screeded, but I was nervous. NO SECOND LOAD in sight. By the time I had finished the final troweling on the first load, there was still no second load. Since you have been in construction a day or two, I need not describe the thoughts that were going thru my head, or the comments I was building up to by the time I was able to get to a phone next door. By three o’clock and many phone calls burning the wires, I finally decided to call another company I had never dealt with before. The new supplier was finally able to send out a truck at about 4pm. By then, the temp had already dropped to below freezing and the wind was going thru everything. At 5pm, the truck arrived and we completed the pour. I ended up staying up all nite with the concrete and was finally met with the realization it was freezing faster than I could work it and I ended up with a mass of ridges all over that second half of the pour. Gouges showed up later as the surface just peeled away like blisters a few days later when it finally warmed up and thawing commenced.
The next morning, I spoke with the owners, explaining what had happened and assured them, I would fix it. They were going to be away over Christmas vacation. Going on a ski trip back to VT. They gave me a key to the house and I ordered a rental terrazzo machine to grind the floor.
While I was waiting for my helper to pick up the grinder, I sealed off both doors into the next rooms. The day was uneventful and boring as we ran that dust manufacturing machine for most of 8 hours finally arriving at a surface I felt acceptable for a vinyl tile floor to be applied, returned the machine and went home to relax. I actually probably had a good solid week of relaxation with wife & kids. Most of my work was shut down for the winter and I was into sheetrock taping on a couple of small jobs.
On January 2nd, I was visiting a couple of friends and having a couple of beers when the builder from the rough floor job drives in to the yard. He walks into the house and heads straight for me. “Call the Jones’s right away (not their real name)” and he walks out. I wasn’t too bothered but decided to go outside and catch Bob before he got away. “Is there a problem?” I asked. Bob was the sort for whom a four word sentence was a major undertaking. “Just call them. You better do it now.” And he drove off.
“What’s the problem?” I asked, as Mr. Homeowner answered his phone.
“This house is a mess. There is white dust on everything. The beds. The kitchen. The closets. Every piece of clothing is covered and even the pockets are full of dust. We have the whole house torn apart and we are cleaning everything.” It was then that it dawned on me that the heat ducts had been installed between the day of the pour and the day of the grinding. There was not a spot in that house that did not suffer the consequences of my little over sight. “Steve, I’ll be right over to give you a hand.”
“Tinker, if I see your face, I will kill you with my bare hands. You stay the hell away.”
The next day, I figured Steve had cooled down enough that I might escape with only a few broken arms and legs and went over to visit, if for nothing more than to offer my deepest apologies. Steve & his wife had, by then, cooled down; or maybe they were just too tired to stay angry. They described their horror as they had walked into their house after a long drive from way up in Vermont. They were tired and hoping to open a can of soup, devour the contents and just go to bed. As it turned out, they had stayed up all nite cleaning house. Good people tho. They were actually laughing as they related their tale of woe. I wasn’t quite sure whether they were laughing about the fun they had had with their housecleaning, or they were just overjoyed over the fact that I looked so uncomfortable.
We stayed friends for many more years. I did a few more concrete jobs for them and when I retired from the masonry trade, I mowed their lawn and cared for their shrubs for a couple of years until both husband & wife retired and took over for themselves. Their oldest son was a good friend and I helped him out of many a jamb over the next few years until he grew up to adopt an attitude of responsibility. We have all had some good laughs over the story and every time I tell the tale, or hear it from them, I consider how fortunate I was, and am, to have made such a huge error for such wonderful people with a such a sense of humor.
Tinker
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