Warning – Politically Incorrect.
(Disclaimer – have no connection or vested with any woodwork supplier, or manufacturer, or distributor.)
If you are anything like me, you would think that anyone that actually enjoyed hand sanding must have an IQ ten points lower than their age. Don’t get me wrong, in small doses it can be an acceptable chore. Just like a visit to the proctologist. A quick bit of a pain in the you know where, and then you get back to business as usual. The real problem starts when you need to do hours, or sometimes days of hand sanding. That’s more like a bad case of hemorrhoids. Not pleasant. Not at all!
A decision to put a new top on my dining room table seemed like a good idea when made. The six seater table and chairs are about twenty five years old. The set had seen lots of wear and had been re varnished twice. Stripping the table back with a couple of power sanders was as easy as cutting wood incorrectly. The table looked so good that the natural progression to strip the chairs made loads of sense. (Please don’t try and sell me an apartment in London with a view of the Eiffel Tower. I just may be stupid enough to buy it! :oo: )
Never having stripped colonial chairs with turned legs, that have more nooks and crannies than a series of back alleys in Victorian London, I still thought that stripping six chairs can’t be that hard. I just had no idea of the joy awaiting me. (Mine are similar to those in this picture.)
Chair1.jpg
A battle plan was hatched. The chairs would be stripped using paint stripper.
In the First World War, just as the allies thought they would be home by Christmas 1939, my plan for the stripping was that it to only take about two or three days. With strategy and planning skills like that, I must be a reincarnated WW1 Pommy General.
The first, ecologically responsible stripper, was about as successful as the WW1 Gallipoli Campaign. It took far longer than expected and achieved five eights of Sweet Fanny Adams.
Time to pull out the big guns. No mucking around now. It was time for the nastiest paint stripper I could find. The result was as messy as the Vietnam war and had about the same effectiveness.
Having lost two battles and not wishing to loose this war, the decision to take the nuclear option was made. A Dewalt Heat Gun was procured (luckily this army general doesn’t have to gain the approval of the Minister of Finance.)
True to form, I had purchased a pistol when a bloody howitzer was needed. The chairs had been stained and then lacquered with enough varnish to coat a twenty-five foot wooden sail boat. Using the heat gun on the seat was acceptable, but slow, and would still require sanding. The scrolled legs and back supports were another story. The heat gun did get some of the gunk off but major sanding would still required: (even possibly colonel level sanding. :wink: )
The planning staff (me) met at the Red Wine Think Tank to develop a new strategy. A bottle or two of good Oz red always helps the ideas flow. A two front plan was hatched. The first was a Metabo 80cm sander which was reasonably priced. Being small, it could get into some tight spots and would reduce the amount of hand sanding required. In theory, a big thumbs up and it worked well too.
Looking good……. Just two slight problems. Firstly it was going through sandpaper faster than a Formula One takes to do a lap of the circuit. And the all important soft interface sponges that allow work on curved surfaces lasted about as long as a new inkjet’s printer cartridge, and cost about as much as a full one! The second issue was that a vast amount of each chair would still have to be hand sanded. The problem with hemorrhoids is that they can get worse and this one had just got a lot bloody worse.
The second part of the Red Wine Think Tank Plan was the one that finally saved the day, or possibly I should say week; or months as it turned out. Best of all, it was already in the arsenal.
Some time back I noticed a product that looked like nothing I had previously seen. It was only US$25 and figured that if it did half of what the website blurb stated, it could come in very handy one day. It was purchased on spec. When it arrived, it looked exactly as described. A few weeks later, I had a small job and decided to do a test run. Bloody hell! This stuff is better than advertised. It’s capabilities were most impressive.
So what is it? Essentially there are two parts. The first is a set of six different, five inch, colour foam blocks. Each has a unique shape. There are lots of curves and different shaped edges on each block. Being foam, twenty five smackers sounds like a lot for dosh for not much. If you think that, and many people would, you would be about as right as the CIA was about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. These things are great value. Firstly, the places these can get into are simply amazing. Secondly, the block are very resilient, fairly rigid, and they last, and last.
softsanders1.jpg superflex1.jpg softsanders2.jpg
The other factor that makes these a wonder to use is the special sandpaper. Three factors are behind that brilliance. The back of the paper is treated with a sticky glue substance and it sticks to the foam blocks like hot excrement sticks to a baby’s blanket. Doesn’t matter what shape you need to sand, the paper sticks to the block. I don’t know what the sanding side of the paper is made from, but my guess is that its made from (ex) mother-in-law’s tongues. “Ruff.” Never stops and never wears out. It’s simply amazing.
Now back to chairs. I had completed four of them and was working on the fifth. Sitting on a new low (automotive type) stool on wheels, I pushed back from the chair being sanded. The stool’s centre of gravity was not in the middle and it tipped forward. Being smarter than the average bear (as Yogi said to BoBo) I didn’t put my arm out to break my fall. That’s a sure fire way to break it. That part of the prevention strategy worked. :2tsup: My right arm was up in the air as I came off sideways and it didn’t hit the ground. Unfortunately there was a concrete step in the way and my wrist tried to dent it. :o
The crack of my wrist breaking sounded like a whip cracking next to my ear. Being the calm, unflappable sort who takes these sorts of things in their stride, I said, “oh my goodness gracious me” (that was after about two minutes of four letter words, some of which haven’t been invented yet.)
Anyway, after many months, I finally got back to the project recently and finished stripping the last two chairs. And they all look pretty damn good, even if I say so myself. :yipee:
Chair4.jpg
After completing the six chairs, a couple of the foam blocks had finally worn out and some of the others were starting to look a bit sad, so it was time to order a new set. No way I would go without a full set of these in my tool arsenal.
I managed to screw up the order and as a result rang the organisation. The phone call was fascinating. Turns out, the majority of their sales are to the automotive industry and almost none of it to the woodworking fraternity. Why? Because they are a small operation with only four people. By their own admission they are not good at web site management and their marketing, not to put too fine a point on it, is rubbish. But, on the plus side their products are fantastic. Wheredoyageddit? Welcome to SOFT-SANDERSâ„¢ | softsanders.com
So, if you need help with your proctologist, or you are facing a potential dose of hemorrhoids, get some of this medicine and you should recover as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you don’t, take an aspirin and don’t call me in the morning. Thanks for your time.
(Disclaimer – have no connection or vested with any woodwork supplier, or manufacturer, or distributor.)
If you are anything like me, you would think that anyone that actually enjoyed hand sanding must have an IQ ten points lower than their age. Don’t get me wrong, in small doses it can be an acceptable chore. Just like a visit to the proctologist. A quick bit of a pain in the you know where, and then you get back to business as usual. The real problem starts when you need to do hours, or sometimes days of hand sanding. That’s more like a bad case of hemorrhoids. Not pleasant. Not at all!
A decision to put a new top on my dining room table seemed like a good idea when made. The six seater table and chairs are about twenty five years old. The set had seen lots of wear and had been re varnished twice. Stripping the table back with a couple of power sanders was as easy as cutting wood incorrectly. The table looked so good that the natural progression to strip the chairs made loads of sense. (Please don’t try and sell me an apartment in London with a view of the Eiffel Tower. I just may be stupid enough to buy it! :oo: )
Never having stripped colonial chairs with turned legs, that have more nooks and crannies than a series of back alleys in Victorian London, I still thought that stripping six chairs can’t be that hard. I just had no idea of the joy awaiting me. (Mine are similar to those in this picture.)
Chair1.jpg
A battle plan was hatched. The chairs would be stripped using paint stripper.
In the First World War, just as the allies thought they would be home by Christmas 1939, my plan for the stripping was that it to only take about two or three days. With strategy and planning skills like that, I must be a reincarnated WW1 Pommy General.
The first, ecologically responsible stripper, was about as successful as the WW1 Gallipoli Campaign. It took far longer than expected and achieved five eights of Sweet Fanny Adams.
Time to pull out the big guns. No mucking around now. It was time for the nastiest paint stripper I could find. The result was as messy as the Vietnam war and had about the same effectiveness.
Having lost two battles and not wishing to loose this war, the decision to take the nuclear option was made. A Dewalt Heat Gun was procured (luckily this army general doesn’t have to gain the approval of the Minister of Finance.)
True to form, I had purchased a pistol when a bloody howitzer was needed. The chairs had been stained and then lacquered with enough varnish to coat a twenty-five foot wooden sail boat. Using the heat gun on the seat was acceptable, but slow, and would still require sanding. The scrolled legs and back supports were another story. The heat gun did get some of the gunk off but major sanding would still required: (even possibly colonel level sanding. :wink: )
The planning staff (me) met at the Red Wine Think Tank to develop a new strategy. A bottle or two of good Oz red always helps the ideas flow. A two front plan was hatched. The first was a Metabo 80cm sander which was reasonably priced. Being small, it could get into some tight spots and would reduce the amount of hand sanding required. In theory, a big thumbs up and it worked well too.
Looking good……. Just two slight problems. Firstly it was going through sandpaper faster than a Formula One takes to do a lap of the circuit. And the all important soft interface sponges that allow work on curved surfaces lasted about as long as a new inkjet’s printer cartridge, and cost about as much as a full one! The second issue was that a vast amount of each chair would still have to be hand sanded. The problem with hemorrhoids is that they can get worse and this one had just got a lot bloody worse.
The second part of the Red Wine Think Tank Plan was the one that finally saved the day, or possibly I should say week; or months as it turned out. Best of all, it was already in the arsenal.
Some time back I noticed a product that looked like nothing I had previously seen. It was only US$25 and figured that if it did half of what the website blurb stated, it could come in very handy one day. It was purchased on spec. When it arrived, it looked exactly as described. A few weeks later, I had a small job and decided to do a test run. Bloody hell! This stuff is better than advertised. It’s capabilities were most impressive.
So what is it? Essentially there are two parts. The first is a set of six different, five inch, colour foam blocks. Each has a unique shape. There are lots of curves and different shaped edges on each block. Being foam, twenty five smackers sounds like a lot for dosh for not much. If you think that, and many people would, you would be about as right as the CIA was about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. These things are great value. Firstly, the places these can get into are simply amazing. Secondly, the block are very resilient, fairly rigid, and they last, and last.
softsanders1.jpg superflex1.jpg softsanders2.jpg
The other factor that makes these a wonder to use is the special sandpaper. Three factors are behind that brilliance. The back of the paper is treated with a sticky glue substance and it sticks to the foam blocks like hot excrement sticks to a baby’s blanket. Doesn’t matter what shape you need to sand, the paper sticks to the block. I don’t know what the sanding side of the paper is made from, but my guess is that its made from (ex) mother-in-law’s tongues. “Ruff.” Never stops and never wears out. It’s simply amazing.
Now back to chairs. I had completed four of them and was working on the fifth. Sitting on a new low (automotive type) stool on wheels, I pushed back from the chair being sanded. The stool’s centre of gravity was not in the middle and it tipped forward. Being smarter than the average bear (as Yogi said to BoBo) I didn’t put my arm out to break my fall. That’s a sure fire way to break it. That part of the prevention strategy worked. :2tsup: My right arm was up in the air as I came off sideways and it didn’t hit the ground. Unfortunately there was a concrete step in the way and my wrist tried to dent it. :o
The crack of my wrist breaking sounded like a whip cracking next to my ear. Being the calm, unflappable sort who takes these sorts of things in their stride, I said, “oh my goodness gracious me” (that was after about two minutes of four letter words, some of which haven’t been invented yet.)
Anyway, after many months, I finally got back to the project recently and finished stripping the last two chairs. And they all look pretty damn good, even if I say so myself. :yipee:
Chair4.jpg
After completing the six chairs, a couple of the foam blocks had finally worn out and some of the others were starting to look a bit sad, so it was time to order a new set. No way I would go without a full set of these in my tool arsenal.
I managed to screw up the order and as a result rang the organisation. The phone call was fascinating. Turns out, the majority of their sales are to the automotive industry and almost none of it to the woodworking fraternity. Why? Because they are a small operation with only four people. By their own admission they are not good at web site management and their marketing, not to put too fine a point on it, is rubbish. But, on the plus side their products are fantastic. Wheredoyageddit? Welcome to SOFT-SANDERSâ„¢ | softsanders.com
So, if you need help with your proctologist, or you are facing a potential dose of hemorrhoids, get some of this medicine and you should recover as quickly and painlessly as possible. If you don’t, take an aspirin and don’t call me in the morning. Thanks for your time.
Once upon a time.....
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