Which small sander for stripping bed with round legs?

[Stevenscustomguitars]

Hello,

I have a varnished pine bed that I want to paint. I toyed with the idea of roughing the surface, priming with BIM or similar and painting but think it would be better to strip the varnish.

I have a trusty old metabo sxe450 for the flat surfaces that has been going for about 15 years! But I need a small sander for edge work and for doing the round, tapering legs. I know festool do a sander with shaped profile pads but I think it's too expensive for just this one job and would like something that I'll use regularly on lots of jobs

Any advice would be appreciated.
Cheers
Dave

 

[Shane Holland]

Dave,

Consider one of Festool's round pad sanders in conjunction with one or more interface pads. The interface pads are spongy and can conform to irregular shapes or curves. That way you have a sander you can use on other projects that's not a niche tool. Heck, maybe you already have a round pad Festool sander and just need the interface pad(s). These can be stacked for more "cushion".

 

[Stevenscustomguitars]

Thanks Shane,

That looks perfect.

Now I guess I have to decide if I try and find an interface pad to fit my metabo or treat myself to a new festool

Which sander would you recommend? As I already have a 150mm random orbital with the metabo, maybe something smaller would be better for bed legs and also useful in my guitar work.

I see there is an interface pad for the RO90 but would it be too aggressive or hard to control? I've used an RO150 and found it nice but a beast to control compared to the metabo.

Thanks
Dave

 

[HarveyWildes]

Consider one of Festool's round pad sanders in conjunction with one or more interface pads. The interface pads are spongy and can conform to irregular shapes or curves. That way you have a sander you can use on other projects that's not a niche tool. Heck, maybe you already have a round pad Festool sander and just need the interface pad(s). These can be stacked for more "cushion".

Shane - some abrasives (like granat) are pretty stiff, and lower grits are stiffer than higher grits.  Does the stiffness of the grit limit the flexibility of the interface pads?  What kind of abrasive would you recommend for a job like this, and what grit would you start with?

Also, what about Abranet for this kind of work?

 

[HarveyWildes]

Sorry - I meant Rubin is stiff, not granat so much - except in lower grits.  But you might need 80 grit to start with on a task like this.

 

[Shane Holland]

[member=60061]Stevenscustomguitars[/member], it really depends on your budget and your normal uses for a sander. I lot of folks opt for the 6" (150mm) sanders because you can cover a lot more area in the same amount of time vs. a 5" sander. Personally, I prefer the 6" sanders for that reason and that's what I have. So, your options in order of price would be the ETS 150, the ETS EC 150 and the Rotex 150. If you wanted to go with the 5" (125mm) sanders, then you'd be looking at the ETS 125, ETC EC 125 and Rotex 125.

The ETS 125 and ETS 150 are your standard random orbital sanders. The "EC" is a brushless motor version that has more power, lighter weight and a much more compact design. These are especially good if you do a lot of sanding on vertical surfaces or overhead. The Rotex sanders offer the most versatility because they can switch between random orbital mode and the "Rotex" or aggressive gear-driven mode. This makes them phenomenal for stripping, paint removal and just hogging down rough lumber.

I'd recommend heading over to Festool's Youtube channel athttp://www.festool.tv to check out some of the great videos showing these sanders in action to learn more.

Hope that helps, if you still have questions, let me know.

[member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member], I've used the interface pads with the Saphir 24, which is arguably the thickest backed paper in Festool's line up. I used it to strip down an old milk can to repaint it. Worked like a charm. The paper was still able to conform to the shape of the can.

 

[Stevenscustomguitars]

Thanks Shane.

As I already have a 150mm random I think something smaller would be useful. I never like using the 150mm on edges. I also have access to a friends RO150 if I need it. Do you think the RO90 and an interface pad be ok for stripping the varnish of a bed leg that is about 70mm diameter?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Shane Holland]

Dave,

Yes, I think you'd be fine with the Rotex 90, which is a great sander, one of my favorites. The interface pad is going to give you about 1/2" of cushion to work with. Even though the RO 90 has a smaller pad, it should still be able to conform to your table leg well. Plus, you'll get the added benefits of the delta pad for corners and other nooks and crannies.

[member=60061]Stevenscustomguitars[/member]

 

[Stevenscustomguitars]

Sounds like the way to go and I can get a 3M interface pad for the metabo as well!

Thanks Shane for all the helpful advice!

 

[Peter_C]

How large are the legs? I would just consider hand sanding starting with strips, then going with the grain. *shrugs*

 

[Stevenscustomguitars]

The legs are about 1.5m long at the headboard end and about 70cm at the foot, there are also some little tulip like details on the top. I'm looking after two kids so time is pretty tight hence looking at powered sanding. And hand sanding makes more mess, at least when i do it!  [wink]

 

[ear3]

On smaller round stock like your legs the interface pad on the 1500mm would perform equally well as that on the RO90 -- the one edge the RO90 would have is aggressiveness at least in geared mode.  But the RO90 has a lot more versatility for contoured sanding than the 150 I think, since you are able to get into tight/shallow concave and convex forms that the large size of the 150 would round over/flatten.

 

 

[PreferrablyWood]

I really like the RO 90 for small dimensioned work, I think hand sanding is fast enough on tight curves where you can concentrate and lot of power on a small area, also contoured scrapers are good for that kind of work..

I wouldn't use a larger sander on narrow pieces as it's hard to control, though unique thing about the newly introduced ETS EC 125 and 150 is that adjusts the speed of the sander automatically when it senses you are working on narrow pieces..

I have a metabo 5" orbital very good, but I'd prefer having all Festool sanders because of the plug it, and the ability to source all my abrasives from the same supplier..

 

[Kev]

The RO90 with 2 interface pads using Granat in the 100 grit or greater range is an awesome option for curves. To my thinking it's only worth using 1 interface pad with 80 grit and lower.

 

[Holmz]

If it only needs to be roughed up for painting then would it should be a pretty short job even by hand?

 

[Peter_C]

If it only needs to be roughed up for painting then wouldn't it be a pretty short job even by hand?

Yes, but then he wouldn't get to buy a new sander Any excuse needed to buy a new tool must be used.

 

[Nat X]

If you want them to stay perfectly round electric is usually not the way to go. I'd just cut a long strip of paper, wrap it around the leg and tug both ends of it back and forth rapidly while walking around to vary the angle until the bad stuff's all gone.

 

[blaszcsj]

[member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] Is the hard pad required to use the interface pad? or is it ok to use the standard soft pad? Or when would you use either?

 

[Shane Holland]

[member=48572]Shane Holland[/member] Is the hard pad required to use the interface pad? or is it ok to use the standard soft pad? Or when would you use either?

[member=45856]blaszcsj[/member], you can use it with any of the pads: hard, soft, super soft. Doesn't matter.

 

[Holmz]

If you want them to stay perfectly round electric is usually not the way to go. I'd just cut a long strip of paper, wrap it around the leg and tug both ends of it back and forth rapidly while walking around to vary the angle until the bad stuff's all gone.

And then snap the strip like a "shoe shine" for dramatic effect.  [smile]