Sanding Away!

We get to play with some fun power tools now that we’re in the sanding stage!!

Our carpenter took the two cabinet doors above the fridge and put in wood panes (in the future they’ll have glass in them) that matched.  They look great, but the only problem is the original door frames have about 4 layers of paint on them.  (White, then blue underneath, then peach underneath, then we think white again underneath.)  Seeing as we want to paint them Capitol White, our carpenter suggested we remove the old paint before adding more on top.  At first I took a piece of sandpaper and started sanding away the old paint but it was taking FOREVER, and we only have a few hours after work each day to get this done so I like to feel productive.

Enter: the electric power sander!

It takes the paint off SO quickly!  We were telling my mother-in-law about how we were taking off the paint and she mentioned we should wear masks because the paint is most likely lead-based… oops!  Definitely didn’t think of that!  In retrospect we absolutely should have worn masks but we will going forward.

In addition to sanding the original cabinet door frames, we need to sand the cupboard boxes that we’re keeping, too.

My tips for using a Power Sander:

• Go slowly and don’t worry about getting all the paint off on the first pass.  Make lots of passes and it will come off– just be patient and remember it’s still a heck of a lot faster than if you were using sandpaper!
• If you’re sanding something smaller, make sure it’s safely held down/ in place and won’t skid anywhere while you’re applying pressure to it.
• As always, clean up as you go.
• Try to apply even pressure and not concentrate too long in one area.  This may seem intuitive but I found I kept wanted to dig into certain areas where the paint seems especially thick– by the end I realized that if I had just kept even pressure the whole time, it would have come off just the same.

Hope that helps anyone who’s thinking of sanding!  Good luck!

-Lynne