Refinishing Questions

Joined
Mar 14, 2007
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145
I have to finish these bad boys for the wife as well (see pics below).  I was thinking of the Rotex (125/150) but not sure if I could use these instead of a Festool ROS.  Suggestions?

I'm listening.

Chuck
 
Wouldn't it be difficult to get into the corners on the stairs and also into and around the moulding on the door? Might be ok for the main door pieces though. BTW what happened to scratch up the door like that.  Looks similar to dog claw damage..
 
That door will be a problem. The scratches are on the bead molding too. The stairs won't be half as hard. That's a big dog.
 
The combination of sanders I am using is:
1  RO 150 for rough sanding to fine sanding.  The circular disc/pad is 6" so it does not get into corners or narrow spaces, but is great for hogging out large areas.  I understand there is another Festool sander the same size that is even better for real heavy sanding of rough areas.  I don't have the # of that sander in my head right now.  I used to use a small belt sander for rough sanding, but when not using every day, I would get into big troubles and end up with lumber for future (smaller) projects. :-[  The Rotex is much easier to use and more natural feel. 
note:  Wouldn't a scraper be in order to start the process on that door?

2  Since the RO 150 is round disc, and cannot get into corners, something is needed for corners.  A sanding block would work fine, except I am lazy and my time in WW shop is always limited.  Voila!!!, Festool has the answer.  My second Festool sander was/is the Deltex 93.  That is one handy sander for bery narrow spaces as well as corners.  (I also have the Fein Multi Master that can do the same thing in an even narrower space, but I go for the DE 93 first)  For that door and the stairs, this sander will be a must have.

3  Eventually, i found a need for a lineal sander.  Not always, but quite often, i wanted to eliminate the swirls left by the RO 150.  I found the LS 130 to be just the ticket.  Not only does it follow grain, but it gets closer in the corners than the RO 150.  It also will follow along the edges of trim much better.  The newer RO 150 has a trim tab that will help you avoid cutting in along those edges.  For me, i have the old style and so the LS 130 serves that purpose very well without cutting in to the edges.  This sander has a whole fleet of different shaped pads for doing inside corners all the way to bullnose type edging.  A great sander.  You will probably need to make a few of your own sanding blocks for along the mouldings, but I think the 130 has some sort of an adjustable pad (not certain on this> Somebody else will pitch in, I am sure) to handle some of the situations.

I think if you have these three sanders, you can handle almost anything.  Your biggest problem will be to determine what you want to keep on hand for sanding grits.  I have tried to not overstock, but sooner or later, it seems i come across a problem that wnts a different grit than what I already have.  "Uncle Bob" will break down into smaller amounts if you request.  I also can get some grits in packages of 10.  you have to look over the catalogue.  If you have use other sanders, you might think 10 is not a very large quantity.  For my old PC 33 and my 1/4 sheet Milwaukee, it was never enough.  You will find that with the Festool sanders, a sheet seems to last forever.

Hope this helps.

Tinker

PS: We have had several dogs thru the years.  Each one gave a different message when wanting to go out.  One tore up screens until we put in a door with no screen in lower pannel.  One always scratched the door casing trim at side of door.  When she left us, it was easy to replace the trim strip.  Another did as yours has done.  The young pup (16 year old Golden) very discretely, or very roughly, depending on stage of emergency, pushes my elbow as I am sitting at the kitchen table beside the door.  i cannot count the number of coffees that have been sent flying.  Since the kichen table is also my office with computer off to ne side, there has been many a docuement that has been rather messed up as my elbow has been roughly misdirected causing my hand, even tho somewhat disconnected from my elbow, to tangle with the wrong keeys. 

This dear old pal had been very abused when we first brought her home.  That very first evening, i spent nearly the entire first couple of hours teaching her she would never be hit again. (another story for another time).  The next morning, i was sitting at the table having breakfast when Maggie came over and started pushing my elbow.  I thought she wanted to play and so ignored her.  After several pushes and atleast one coffee disaster, she just quit pushing my arm and calmly walked onto the living room carpet and made one huge pile of you know what.  I just laughed and told my wife that not only does the dog need to learn our language, but we have to learn hers as well.  That was the last mess we ever had to cleanup until just recently when she got some sort of virus.  But she still slams my elbow when she wants out.
WHT
 
Three sanders would be ideal for these projects:  an RO 125 or 150 (which might be too big to fit between the moldings on the door), Deltex 93 for getting into the corners, and LS 130 for the moldings.  If you can only have two, my recommendation is an RO 125 and a Deltex 93.  I have both of these and chose them for much the same projects, and later bought the LS 130.  I also have other non-Festool sanders including a Bosch 4x24 belt sander, a Bosch 1/4 sheet pad sander, a Bosch 5 inch RO, a Bosch Vario (narrow belt sander) and a Milwaukee 1/2 sheet orbital sander, but these Festool units have become my favorites.

Dave R.
 
Dave Ronyak said:
Three sanders would be ideal for these projects:  an RO 125 or 150 (which might be too big to fit between the moldings on the door), Deltex 93 for getting into the corners, and LS 130 for the moldings.  If you can only have two, my recommendation is an RO 125 and a Deltex 93.  I have both of these and chose them for much the same projects, and later bought the LS 130.  I also have other non-Festool sanders including a Bosch 4x24 belt sander, a Bosch 1/4 sheet pad sander, a Bosch 5 inch RO, a Bosch Vario (narrow belt sander) and a Milwaukee 1/2 sheet orbital sander, but these Festool units have become my favorites.

Dave R.

Why did you go with the 125 instead of the 150?  Also, how about the choice of abrasives?

Thanks,
Chuck
 
I went with the RO 125 because much of my intended work was on the ceilings and walls of my house - carving out cracks in old plaster, and the RO 125 was smaller and lighter than the RO 150.  (I had already done enough plaster carving with other power tools to realize what a difference lighter weight and good dust collection make to the operator!)  There is no doubt that for maximum versatility, the RO 150 wins out because there is a greater variety of sanding and polishing supplies and accessories available for it.  But if the spacing between your raised moldings is less than 150 mm and greater than 125 mm, only the RO 125 is going to fit.

Dave R.
 
I think that I have decided on the RO 150 and the Deltex 93.  Can anyone recommend what grits I may need?

Question though:  Any thoughts on the ETS 150/3 or the 150/5 for the job?

Chuck
 
The wife used a DX 93 sander with 80 and 120 grit to finish some old bookcases. She had some fine detail to do and the guy at a Woodcraft
store sugested soft-sander which is at www.soft-sanders.com. She ended up just using a cake decorating knife and a cut up sheet of 80 grit
and then 120 grit. 

I have never used the soft-sanders but with the detail you have to do like the bead molding
you might check it out.

I also thought about a Dremel Contour Sander athttp://www.dremel.com/en-us/tools/tool-detail.htm?H=188090&G=69667&I=66209 but
didn't get either one.

 
Funny that you mentioned soft sanders.  I was going to get those in addition to the two sanders.  I have some mouldings that I stripped and was going to use the soft sanders that I found in the Hartville Tool catalog. 
Thanks,
Chuck
 
Assuming you're starting with bare wood and then finishing, I have Rubin - 36, 80, 120, 180 and Brilliant 220 and 320.  So far that's been all I need to do some serious resculpting of wood through inter-coat finish sanding.  If you're going to wax the finish, you might want to go higher with Brilliant or get one of the polishing wool sets.
 
I would go with a ro150 on the stairs. Start with the lowest grit cristal since it has a more open grain pattern. Rubin and all the others will gum up quicker than all heck man. If you don't have that use saphir 24 grit. crank up the vac and sander full boar. Looks like the stairs have laquer or some old fashioned thick gunk on them. Get agressive as possible and scratch the hell out of the stairs in random orbit mode. If you use Rubin you will gum up the paper in one pass of the sander and money will be flying out of your wallet.

I own a flooring company. I start with an edger so the Rotex is as close as you will get with a festool sander unless you own a ras! theres another great option to break all that gunk. I start with my edger and a 16-4 grit paper then pull out the rotex and start in random orbit with 24 grit or 40 grit. then bump up 20 grit at a time, switching from random orbit to finish mode. I end at 80 or 120 depending on the type of wood. The last two pieces of paper to use are Rubin for the finish sanding. Don't use Titan! it has wax in it and poly won't stick! Use the deltex in the corners, or hand scrape the corners then use the deltex. This saves paper. Go 24 grit saphir and jump to 60 or 80 rubin for the deltex.

The deltex also works great on those doors. I just did a few back here in Nebraska. Good luck to ya! Oh and put some tape on those risers because the ras and rotex will nick the paint!~

Cheers
 
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