[Glenmore]

My priest bought me the biggest badest belt sander I've ever seen in my life for a hand held sander that is. He bought it for a project that I'll be doing this winter I have about 150 pews to strip and stain. And I would like to know if any of you have operated this type of sander with the variable speed and what I should look out for don't to make a shabby job of such a nice piece of work. I know I can't use this for the detail work just on the flat surfaces. Thanks

 

[Soozy]

This is my first post in here. Hello To All.
My husband and I have a hand held belt sander, big and powerful thing. Back a few years ago I was refinishing an old oak table. I made the mistake of asking my husband to sand the top of it. He used the hand held belt sander and really made a mess of the table top. I ended up taking the table top and the 2 leafs to a mill and paid them to run it through the HUGE drum sander to fix it. In my opinion, the hand held belt sander IS NOT a very good choice for refinishing pews, flat or not. You might want to try it out on something that is not of much value and see for your self. If you are stripping and staining the pews, use a stripper for that. Your local hardware or home improvement store carry a nice selection. If the pews need sanding I suggest you use an orbital sander and only sand the areas that are in need of sanding. I have found in my experience that once the finish is stripped off using a stripper, the wood needs very little sanding. Most of the unsightly defects are in the finish. I hope this has helped.
Here is a site you can go to and see some of the stuff I have made and see me and my family.
http://groups.msn.com/MyWindowsXP/soozysstuff.msnw
soozy

 

[reible]

This is my first post in here. Hello To All.
My husband and I have a hand held belt sander, big and powerful thing. Back a few years ago I was refinishing an old oak table. I made the mistake of asking my husband to sand the top of it. He used the hand held belt sander and really made a mess of the table top. I ended up taking the table top and the 2 leafs to a mill and paid them to run it through the HUGE drum sander to fix it. In my opinion, the hand held belt sander IS NOT a very good choice for refinishing pews, flat or not. You might want to try it out on something that is not of much value and see for your self. If you are stripping and staining the pews, use a stripper for that. Your local hardware or home improvement store carry a nice selection. If the pews need sanding I suggest you use an orbital sander and only sand the areas that are in need of sanding. I have found in my experience that once the finish is stripped off using a stripper, the wood needs very little sanding. Most of the unsightly defects are in the finish. I hope this has helped.
Here is a site you can go to and see some of the stuff I have made and see me and my family.
http://groups.msn.com/MyWindowsXP/soozysstuff.msnw
soozy

Addition to orginal thread:

I would say that the belt sander is way over kill for a refinishing project like you have, as was said here. I also agree that a random orbital sander would be a good pick along with maybe a small finishing sander.

Now on to other things:
Soozy,
I stopped by to visit your web-site and found several things of interest. One was the large padlock, you wouldn't want to share more about that would you, on another thread of course. Also the plywood cabinet with the red drawers, I remember seeing then somewhere (the draws) in a catalog, could you refresh my memory?

Now if you wouldn't mind it would be nice to see the posting of your introduction and web pages in the Introductions section where more people might find it and learn about what you have done, and enjoy your projects. Thanks for sharing! I hope to see more post from you!

Ed

 

[Glenmore]

Thanks Soozy you are the second person to tell me this I think I'll do it your way because I am a little scared what it might do to the general finish. I usaully use my pad sander and mouse sanders for all my wood projects a belt sander is a experiment for me also thanks a lot for the heads up on the subject. I going to go with a stripper instead.

 

[jmowreader]

In the great hierarchy of stock removal, that belt sander is one very tiny step down from a power planer.

I would suggest your priest exchange the belt sander for the 6-inch PC random orbit sander and some Purdy brushes.

 

[DONALD]

Don't go anywhere near those pews with a belt sander. Strip and finish. Do any sanding required either by hand or with a random orbit sander and start out with the finest grit paper and go to a medium grit only if the fnest is not enough. Sounds like a big job..................good luck.

 

[Glenmore]

Donald already returned it and got my self a detailed palm sander. I figured all the replies and me thinking it over. And stripper and some light sanding is the way to go. Thanks to everyone for the advise.