Which make and model of power sander?!

Likes_cake_and_tea

Good Evening All,

I have recently moved into a much neglected Edwardian property and am undertaking all of the decorating myself. From experience it will take a long time to manually remove the layers of paint from the skirting boards, picture rails and architrave so I would like to invest in a good power sander. I wondered if any experienced decorators out there could suggest a good make and model with reasons why?
Which would be more suited to my purposes; an orbital, a random orbital or belt sander? Is cordless better than a sander with a lead?
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post

aahbarnes

Do you really need to remove all the paint? Sounds like an awful job.

Why not just sand & paint?

keith969

Likes_cake_and_tea wrote: »

Good Evening All,

I have recently moved into a much neglected Edwardian property and am undertaking all of the decorating myself. From experience it will take a long time to manually remove the layers of paint from the skirting boards, picture rails and architrave so I would like to invest in a good power sander. I wondered if any experienced decorators out there could suggest a good make and model with reasons why?
Which would be more suited to my purposes; an orbital, a random orbital or belt sander? Is cordless better than a sander with a lead?

None of the above.

Using a sander to strip paint is a sure way to spend a lot of money on expensive sanding discs/belts etc as they will clog up fast. And a sander is only any help on large flat areas, the things you mention generally aren't and you will need to use a blowtorch or Nitromors and a scraper to remove the paint.

Grz.26

rubbish job, i am stripping my stairs back to the original wood, just alot of elbow grease, and like keith969 said nitromors and a scrapper. slowly it is is starting to come off. Wouldnt want to do it again mind.

ormus

a heat gun is cheaper and far better for paint stripping.

Grz.26

...be careful though if it is lead based paint. nasty stuff.

markie1980

1. heat gun to get worst of,
2. then a light sand to remove loose lumps,
3. then Nitromoors (or similar)
4. then sand

or preferably, if you want the bare wood look pull it all off and have it stripped or replace with new.

chrisg1985

Yeh some good advice here so far. Best thing to do is evaluate what finish your hoping to achieve. If you want a fantastic finish you will have to go to the lengths of stripping and sanding back.

If your after a good finish removing all layers of paint is definetely not necessary on skirting boards,doors,architrave etc etc.

If you strip back heat gun is probably your best bet. I prefer a blow torch but there are lots of good reasons not to use one.

When your stripping your windows use nitromors otherwise you will crack loads of panes of glass.

diable

Grz.26 wrote: »

rubbish job, i am stripping my stairs back to the original wood, just alot of elbow grease, and like keith969 said nitromors and a scrapper. slowly it is is starting to come off. Wouldnt want to do it again mind.

I did this job years ago and sand paper that is material/cloth based was a godsend on round balustrades.

Keep at it as it is worth it in the end, looks gorgeous.

Likes_cake_and_tea

Thank you all very much for taking the time to share your valuable experience and advice. I have learnt a lot. I have decided (based on all of the information given) that I do not need to strip off all the paint, taking the skirting etc. back to bare wood (thus saving myself time and avoiding lead poisoning.....). I shall just re-define the detail that has been lost under several coats of sloppy emulsion and give myself the smoothest surface possible to prime and then paint on top of. Now I need to find a good primer.....!