31st August 2026
I was determined to get the newest dresser prepared for painting, mainly because Kelli had secured a possible buyer.
My aim was to strip the top back to raw wood, but my first attempt with the scraper showed my worst fears, under the hand painted surface was a powder coat. That suddenly made the job ten times worse.
Getting the latex paint off was simple, but the powder coat required the use of some heavy guns, the belt sander. I fitted an eighty grit belt
and went for it. Gradually inch by inch the wood substrate came into view. It must have taken a good hour of grinding to remove that surface.
Now I was left with surface that required sanding to bring it back to it naturally wood colour.
Out came orbital sander number one. A new disc was fitted and off I went. It was going well, the natural cedar appeared, and as I continued some black marks appeared, as I lifted the sander off the surface, the pad fell off. The foam rubber had perished, well it was an old tool inherited from Dave.
I went to the cupboard to get orbital sander number two, this was a newer Makita, I continued on, sanding back most of the surface, with just the last corner to complete when the second sander failed.
It was not the end of the world, I finished it off with a hand sanding block, but now I had two useless sanders.
I managed to find a replacement pad on eBay which is simple to fit. The Makita was harder to locate the problem. A trawl through YouTube showed me that the brake ring might be the answer. When I took the sander apart the piece that was supposed to be the brake ring had disintegrated. Good old eBay had that part as well, so in a week or two I could have two working sanders again.
The two “children” had a moment of calm, and it was captured.
