Recommend me a sander

[EarSlaps]

I'm after an electric sander for a few small jobs (sanding furniture and doors for painting). Do I need a big one for bigger surfaces and then a detailer? Or is there one that could do both?

We have a Black and Decker mouse detail sander - it's very good, but boy are the sand paper things expensive! We also have a Bosch heavier duty one that uses the strips of sandpaper you buy on a roll. It too is good, but noisy and makes your arm vibrate.

That's what I was wondering about, whether the sandpaper would bankrupt me! I saw this in B&Q this afternoon and it looked interesting, but I'm always a bit suspicious of things that try to do lots of jobs in case they do none of them well .

Depends what jobs you want it for as there are a range of types - belt, orbital etc. I love my de Walt random orbital and skil belt sanders but they are very different and must be used according to the job. Are your pieces already stripped? If so a random orbital is best. If not, strip first and then use a random orbital. You need to vary sandpaper grit also to ensure a good finish

Very thin layer of varnish I think on one, another is an outside table that's a bit weathered.

Take the varnish off first or you'll clog up the sandpaper and make it a laborious task. Use sandpaper round a block or just by hand to get into small spaces. Unless you're loaded, in which case buy a detail sander as well. Can you borrow from anyone? To see what you think/what works?

Good idea, could borrow.

Silly question, but do you just use paint stripper to remove varnish? It's really thin, so could I not just rough it up a bit with sander to take the primer.

Can you tell I have no clue what I'm doing?

You have to start somewhere, and you know what a sander is, so it's all good. Yes any chemical stripper will take off paint or varnish. You could have a go hand sanding to see if it will strip without chemicals? If it's water based it'll be easier but unless you know this there's no way of telling by looking. Well I can't anyway

The drawers are at least 30 years old so I'm guessing it was all oil based varnish then.

I was thinking about spraying them, since they will be bright colours (ds has requested orange and blue!). Seems easier to get a good finish from what I've read. And we have a nice big garden in which to do it.

Have a go at sanding. I love naked wood, it's just so lovely. And only a thin coat of varnish is good. Go on

When I had a Black and Decker Mouse sander I bought the cheaper sandpaper which was slightly bigger and without the correct holes but I cut it to size and put the correct holes in.

if you have panelled doors, measure the panels first and get an orbital sander that is small enough for the pad to fit, but is otherwise as big as will fit.

You will probably also find a little triangular one useful for bits.

With orbital sanders, you can buy packs of sheet in standard sizes, and if you are doing a lot, can buy it in rolls and cut to fit (I have seen a decorator doing that when sanding filled walls; the filler clogs it quickly).

Buy a box of disposable dust masks, get the ones with a plastic valve on the snout. And ear defenders. I said ear defenders. EAR DEFENDERS!