Sanding Stairs

raler

Hi,

I'm trying to take our stairs back to the natural wood. Having used a combination of nitromors\hot gun to ged rid of most of the paint, can anyone suggest whats the best way forwards after that ? I've one of those rectangular sanders but even a lot of elbow grease is not having much of an effect.

do I need to get an orbital drill attatchment for my drill ? Or a dedicated orbital sander ? Or one of those sanders with a rotating belt (the one I have is fixed) ?

Advice appreciated!

Richard

Wertz

The treads/risers of the stairs themselves?
I'd say you need both a belt sander and a corner/detail sander with some fairly coarse paper to start with and then smoothed down with a finer paper. Be careful with the belt sander on such a small area...it will tend to dig in and score the surface. Obviously sand with the grain, in one direction only. Not a nice job.

raler

Thanks. Yes, the treads/risers themselves. What youre sayign makes sense, needs something more than what I've got for sure. I'll see about hiring one of those belt sanders so.

Wertz

You know, since you've stripped a fair bit off it already (I assume you're looking to get the wood fit for stain/varnish/lacquer), a decent RPM random orbital sander might do the job and would be easier to control especially on the risers. Less likelihood of damaging the wood too.

raler

Cheers again. Do you know of an orbital drill attachment approaches in any way the effectiveness of a dedicated orbital sander ?

Big_Mac

raler wrote: »

Cheers again. Do you know of an orbital drill attachment approaches in any way the effectiveness of a dedicated orbital sander ?

There is a difference in the two here. The drill attachment will be a disc sander, and the orbital sander is different.

Disc sander rotates in a constant and has a tendency to score the wood. An orbital Sander vibrates in a circular motion randomly, but does not continually rotate in the same manner as a disc sander would.

If you've got most of the paint off, best bet would be a good orbital sander with heavy grit paper and then lighter grades. You would also need a profile sander to get into the corners. Good luck to you as I did this myself before and its a hateful job....

Wertz

I'd be using the sander myself...it allows you to get even pressure across the area being sanded. Plus what Big_Mac says is also a reason to avoid the drill method too.

raler

Thanks for the replies, good to actually know the difference with the things Im talkign about it. Under no illusions now as to the job ahead of me!

Cheers again,
Richard