Sanding door and window frame mouldings

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TobyB

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I've a couple of Victorian doors and windows to tidy up. My Fein Multimaster has been superb at cleaning up the panels. rails etc. But the profile sander attachment is very disappointing - abrasive doesn't stay in the clamp, and even if it does is very quickly wearing out ... I have tried both very light (abrasive falls out) and heavier (abrasive fails) pressures.

Is there a knack to using it successfully? Or is it just a poor job - shame, when the rest of the tool is so good.

Is there an alternative to doing it all by hand?
 
TobyB":txrw2wgf said:
I've a couple of Victorian doors and windows to tidy up. My Fein Multimaster has been superb at cleaning up the panels. rails etc. But the profile sander attachment is very disappointing - abrasive doesn't stay in the clamp, and even if it does is very quickly wearing out ... I have tried both very light (abrasive falls out) and heavier (abrasive fails) pressures.

Is there a knack to using it successfully? Or is it just a poor job - shame, when the rest of the tool is so good.

Is there an alternative to doing it all by hand?

Abranet works wonders and easily takes to profiles. You can tear Abranet into strips and should be able to fit it to the profiles. Lasts far longer than normal abrasive.

http://www.asktools.co.uk/ - sell it - local too.

HIH

Dibs
 
No..you're spot on. When it was announced a few years back, I got all excited and bought one of the first out. Sadly disappointed.

And no, chaps, it's not a veiled push towards my Porter Cable Profile Sander that I've got for sale. If you search the forum, you'll see that I made similar comments in the past about the Fein sander. :wink:
 
Hi Dibs - are you suggesting I use Abranet on the Fein, or just as a hand alternative to sandpaper. I've got so much to sand, I was wondering if there was a power tool option?

I've now found that Festool do a linear sander, but at over £300 it seems just a bit too specialised for me ... but if I'd known about it when I bought the house, and had loads to do, it might have seemed a good idea ...

Any alternatives ... like this Porter one you mention Roger?

Cheers

Toby
 
Turn the speed down - it helps a lot but still not perfect (tip from someone else on here a while back).
 
I've done all the architraves and skirtings in my house with the Fein, and been very glad of it. I cut my own glasspaper up - mostly 60 and 80g, and not had any problem with it coming out of the clamp. Admittedly it doesn't last very long, but only takes a few seconds to change. Some of the deeper profiles needed sanding by hand, as the supplied rubber pads have their limits. Moderate pressure and full speed.
 
Are you stripping the mouldings back to bare wood or is this just paintwork prep? If it's only a couple of doors worth, then by hand may be the only option if the multimaster profile thing isn't up to the job. Just a thought, but if the main problem is slippage of the abrasive, could you not glue velcro to the multimaster profiles and use velcro-backed sanding sheets? Or double-sided tape? Spray-mount? Anything that helps stop the slippage may be a better bet than relying on the spring-clip affair they supply, I'd have thought?

As you say, the Festool linear sander (LS 130) is made for the job, but you have to have an awful lot of the same moulding to do before it's worthwhile making a base to fit the profile - though the ready-made v-profile bases may do the job well enough?? Not cheap (of course) but it's capable of stripping back decades of old paint very quickly, if that's what you need.

HTH Pete
 
Have you tried a sanding star?

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Power+T ... 790/p10118

Not high tech or expensive but I found it worked very well when stripping victorian sash window mouldings. The bulk was taken off with a heat gun and shaped scraper. I used the star to tidy up, leaving a smooth finish ready for painting. It won't get right into corners but I used a sharp chisel or cabinet scraper where necessary. 16 sashes done and appears hardly worn. A very few fingers of abrasive lost off the star due to my over enthusiasm.

Graham
 
Yeah I was a bit disappointed too I bought the Multimaster set that comes with the profile sanding set and you really need to make sure that paper is clamped in tight or the whole thing just falls apart. You would think it would be better for what it costs :x
 
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