Sanding primed door casing material

[awdriven]

Guys - I have a good sized stack of poplar door casing moulding that I have been using to replace existing clamshell type mouldings in my house.

I could only get the material as bare wood, so I sprayed some oil based primer. The resulting finish never leveled to a point where I was happy with it. I've been hand sanding to knock down the slight eggshell texture on the pieces.

There are flats, coves and a bead on this profile. Is there a faster way to finish sand these pieces than by hand? I don't want to add machines just for the sake of using a machine, I'd really like to get a good result, but more quickly than I am today.

On this page, I have CG9 moulding.

http://www.monteath.com/moulding-cg.html

I recall seeing at one point a drill attachment that had abrasive strings that might conform to the surface of the molding?

 

[Tim Sproul]

The Festool linear sander would work for this situation.  Definitely faster than hand sanding.  Just a lot more money.  You want the sander and some of the pad kits that can be custom shaped.

 

[AlexThePalex]

awdriven, how have you been sanding by hand? Did you hold the paper in your hand or did you use a block to hold the paper?

I would forget using the drill attachment you talk about, it is impossible to get a flat result with that.

The Festool LS 130 linear sander with custom pads might work with this, but if I look at the profile of the molding you want to sand, you'll have to use two or three of those custom pads and that's pretty expensive. I haven't used an LS130 myself, so I also don't know how well it works with keeping the lines on your mouldings sharp.

One thing I myself would try is to make a custom wooden sand block that fits the profile on the moulding and use that to sand it. With such a block you can apply a lot more force and sand faster.

 

 

[Alan m]

iv seen an artical in one of the magazines  about creating a custom sanding pad for the profile. cut a short piece (4-5 inchs long) make a box around it . cover in cling film (carfully making it  conform to the shape, release ajant will good too) then fill the box with car body filler. take out and glue on a psa sanding sheet . a fine thickness paper will help with the details.

i must try this myself but i think it should work ok

 

[AlexThePalex]

Nice tip Alan, thanks. I'll remember that one.  [smile]