Sanding my mahogany facade, and i need the right tools.

[thenewguy]

Hi,

I'm totally new here, but i'm looking for some input.

We live in a house with a mahogany facade that has been painted over by the previous owners. The wood need some attention and oil, but before i get to that part, i neeed to sand it down.

I have limited time to sand the house, so I need to buy some efficient tools for the task. I have been considering a Festool ETS EC 150/5, a random orbital sander with a 150mm pad and 5mm stroke, which is also relatively lightweight. Alternatively, a Festool Rotex RO 90, which also works as a delta sander, but is pretty heavy, and covers less area.

Has anyone had any experiences with different types of machines and their sizes? Is one more effective than another?
What about the grit size, how fine should one go before applying oil?

Unfortunately, there aren’t many large surfaces (but still enough), but rather a lot of windows and sliding doors, along with trim, etc. What type of machine is effective for sanding these areas? Is it effective enough with a multi-cutter/Fein with a delta sanding head like the DX93, or should one go for a specific delta sander like the Festool DTS 400?

I really hope there are some who have had experiences and are willing to share them.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Packard]

I have not done a project as large as yours.  I did restore a painted exterior door that was original to my house, bringing it back to raw wood.

I don’t know how many coat of paint it had since 1953, but probably 3 or 4.  And at least one was likely oil based.

I tried sanding, scraping, paint stripper + scraping, and heat gun + scraping.

If I was just repainting, I would probably scrape + prime + paint.

I didn’t try it, but I’ve heard of people using a pressure washer.  But note that water can get behind siding because of the direction of the water stream, and may take quite a while to dry and be suitable for paint.

There are dedicated machines for scraping paint.  But if you rent one, I would have the paint tested for lead.  A mask might not provide sufficient protection in that instance.

I settled on a heat gun and scrape, a chemical stripper in the crevasses, and final sanding.  I finished with a clear coat.  I would not use a heat gun in the summer, however.

There is a professional-only painting forum.  They won’t allow amateurs to sign up, but they will allow you to search discussions.

It is probably worth a look: https://www.painttalk.com/

 

[thenewguy]

I appreciated your answer, thank you so much for taking the time.

I'm not afraid of the paint per-se. i think it was an oil based application, with alot of pigments in it. I can clearly feel the wood, when using my hand, so i would assume that it can be sanded down.

 

[jonnyrocket]

If you are asking for a single sander to do everything, I don’t think there is one.
The ETS/EC 150/5 will be great for all the flat areas.

The RO 90, is a great sander for narrow spaces and you definitely have some of those. The delta head accessory would also be helpful and I think would do a much better job then the Fein with a delta sander. The stroke on the multimaster is too small to efficiently strip paints.

The RO 90 with delta attachment allows you to rotate the paper and use all 3 corners. The DTS400 doesn’t allow this. But the DTS 400 does give more surface area in the Delta, but its stroke is a finer stroke than the RO 90 in delta mode (I may be remembering this wrong, but believe this is true).

Regardless of which sanders you use. Get some additional “interface” pads that give extra cushion between the paper and the sander’s backing pad. You will want to use them when going into the angled spaces between the planks so you aren’t damaging the profile of the siding.