AJB Temple
Finely figured
As it is winter, I am not doing outdoor building work at home and concentrating on the floors and doors. The barn conversion we live in was converted by cheap and nasty co, and then lived it by Mr & Mrs Bodger, who had an interesting approach to plumbing and wiring alterations. So I have pretty much gutted the place. All the nasty thin Deal doors and frames have been junked, along with all the carpets. The upper floor and hallway have been fully wet plastered and I am in the process of laying about 2000 sq feet of oak flooring upstairs (downstairs will be stone), making substantial oak doors and frames, and skirtings etc.
My sanding set up until yesterday, was a ROS of unknown brand acquired in Germany, plus a couple of palm sanders. I've got two big belt sanders as well, an Elu and a Makita, which are excellent, but not really ideal for work in the house (I use them on the framing work). I'm asthmatic and dust is a bit of a problem for me and I finally got sick of the clouds of stuff wherever I am working.
I've only done one room, 5 door frames and hung two doors so far (but made quite a few more oak doors) and realised that I needed to improve my sanding set up. Much internet browsing went on, including here, and eventually I decided to fork out the sizeable sum for a Mirka Deros.
The Deros kit was £505 including VAT. That is a hell of a lot for a sander. Included the sander with two different plate sizes, Systainer, vacuum hose, adaptor, 5 boxes of 50 Abranet, and two plate savers. I bought two Lidl vacuums recently as they are stupidly cheap, and hooked the Mirka up to one. The hose is tapered (which improves dust extraction apparently) and fitted straight into the Lidl vacuum without an adaptor.
This sander was a complete revelation to me. If I had know how good they are I would have bought one years ago. With Abranet, there was literally no discernible dust. Superb finish, very quick, not noisy, lightweight and easy to use. I like the fact that when you get up to a delicate area you can ease off the paddle and the machine will slow right down. Also brakes, so machine stops in half a second when you want it to.
Lidl extractor also does a good job. Power take off means the vacuum comes on when you start the machine, and then runs on for a few seconds when you stop.
I've never used Abranet before. And I won't be going back to paper discs.
As a test I stripped the varnish off a junk shop table. I bought this, along with six chairs for £100 (delivered) as a temporary table for the temporary kitchen. I suspected the top was Honduran Mahogany, but there was a horrid layer of dark brown varnish. The table is almost 2 metres long and is 60mm thick. So I thought if it does turn out to be solid mahogany I can get about 12 guitar bodies out of it. If I can post pictures I will attach some.
My sanding set up until yesterday, was a ROS of unknown brand acquired in Germany, plus a couple of palm sanders. I've got two big belt sanders as well, an Elu and a Makita, which are excellent, but not really ideal for work in the house (I use them on the framing work). I'm asthmatic and dust is a bit of a problem for me and I finally got sick of the clouds of stuff wherever I am working.
I've only done one room, 5 door frames and hung two doors so far (but made quite a few more oak doors) and realised that I needed to improve my sanding set up. Much internet browsing went on, including here, and eventually I decided to fork out the sizeable sum for a Mirka Deros.
The Deros kit was £505 including VAT. That is a hell of a lot for a sander. Included the sander with two different plate sizes, Systainer, vacuum hose, adaptor, 5 boxes of 50 Abranet, and two plate savers. I bought two Lidl vacuums recently as they are stupidly cheap, and hooked the Mirka up to one. The hose is tapered (which improves dust extraction apparently) and fitted straight into the Lidl vacuum without an adaptor.
This sander was a complete revelation to me. If I had know how good they are I would have bought one years ago. With Abranet, there was literally no discernible dust. Superb finish, very quick, not noisy, lightweight and easy to use. I like the fact that when you get up to a delicate area you can ease off the paddle and the machine will slow right down. Also brakes, so machine stops in half a second when you want it to.
Lidl extractor also does a good job. Power take off means the vacuum comes on when you start the machine, and then runs on for a few seconds when you stop.
I've never used Abranet before. And I won't be going back to paper discs.
As a test I stripped the varnish off a junk shop table. I bought this, along with six chairs for £100 (delivered) as a temporary table for the temporary kitchen. I suspected the top was Honduran Mahogany, but there was a horrid layer of dark brown varnish. The table is almost 2 metres long and is 60mm thick. So I thought if it does turn out to be solid mahogany I can get about 12 guitar bodies out of it. If I can post pictures I will attach some.
