Electric Sanders

pikepole20

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I am starting a project to sand and refinish a kitchen table and need a sander to prep the table. One if the types that catches the dust. What brands are best? Battery or corded is ok, but corded seems the best if electricity is no issue which it is not. Anyone have experience with these and can offer thoughts and opinions based on experience. I believe in the buy once cry once philosophy so a few dollars more does not matter.

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I have a Dewalt random orbital sander. I think it was a couple hundred bucks (ish) 5 or so years ago. It has a dust collection bag on it. I bought a hose/adapter to hook it to my shop vac which works really well. You'll need plenty of sanding discs for a project like that. You may want to start with a belt sander depending on how big that table is. Good luck.
 
I WOULD NOT... use a sander on a dining table ( unless it was solid wood, even then iffy )
A sander will burn thru the first veneer layer lickity split and ruin the top.
I would use a Cabinet Scraper... not a paint scraper either. A sharp one will prep that top without any sanding, which avoids all the dust.
 
For refinishing I say a good electric orbital finishing palm sander (not random just orbital) since you’re just reprepping a surface the was already finished so no real removal of material is needed. I’ve got a 20+ year old Craftsman that works just as good as the day I bought it. It does not have the dust collection system but my work area is open and I just run an air compressor w/ air hose to blow the dust away as I go. You can pickup a budget DEWALT at Lowe’s for around $25 that will handle it and has the dust system and use regular sheet sandpaper.

The other thing you’ll need though is a good sandpaper assortment. Don’t skimp on it and go the extra step to use a real fine grit (400ish grit) to remove swirls and such for the best finish.
 
Money not a consideration...Festool

^^^ This coupled with a Festool vacuum.

Typically the process is a chemical strip, followed by surface prep (sanding, planing or scraping), and refinish.

For finish sanding, Festool's ETS 150/3 is hard to beat. For rough sanding, the RO 150 FEQ is more aggressive.
 
The table had a painted design on it over what is probably a laminate or even plywood maybe. I tried some chalk paint on it and the raised portions of the prior painted design came through when I used some of the black chalk paint wax to shade the final color. Lesson learned there as the surface has to be perfectly smooth. I need the sander to take off the prior layer of chalk paint and the underlying layer of paint as well. I am thinking of getting a random orbital 5" sander that I could maybe use on some other projects as well. So far I am leaning towards the Dewalt model with variable speed and that collects the dust. I should start with about 120 grit and work up to about 220 or so I would guess.

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Buy right the first time.
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Festool RTSC 400 Li Cordless Orbital Sander
 
The table had a painted design on it over what is probably a laminate or even plywood maybe. I tried some chalk paint on it and the raised portions of the prior painted design came through when I used some of the black chalk paint wax to shade the final color. Lesson learned there as the surface has to be perfectly smooth. I need the sander to take off the prior layer of chalk paint and the underlying layer of paint as well. I am thinking of getting a random orbital 5" sander that I could maybe use on some other projects as well. So far I am leaning towards the Dewalt model with variable speed and that collects the dust. I should start with about 120 grit and work up to about 220 or so I would guess.

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Use a chemical stripper first before any sanding.
 
Use a chemical stripper first before any sanding.
Thank you. Mineral spirits should work as I have some and this is soft chalk paint.

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