On the left you see the original Church door, it was in a bit of a sorry state as its many old coatings weren’t adhering correctly due to previous poor preparation!
Mark my right hand man set about the transformation task, there was only one real course of action to bring this old door back to life, he first removed all previous coatings manually, it was an arduous task using paint stripper, glass and sharp scraper blades. Using a blow torch wasn’t an option as our plan was to end up with a door we could stain, hence couldn’t risk scorch marks. After eight hours work the door had been fully stripped. abraded and cleaned as in the middle picture.
Finally to create the correct look we ended up hand mixing stains to get the right colour before finishing with wood oil and then highlighting the ironwork with black.
If you have ever had a water leak on your ceiling leaving a brown mark, you’ll know how untidy it can look. Also if you’ve tried to redecorate just by covering it with several coats of Emulsion paint you’ll realize that is not an ideal solution to the problem.
Sadly there are very few water bourne products that will successfully trap and prevent a water mark bleeding through till finished coatings. Traditionally oil based undercoat would be used to seal the stain. There was also products such as Gulttonglass or Stipptick sealers which were faster drying, but unfortunately didnt work best with emulsions.
Nowadays there are various priority stain sealers in brush and spray applications which perform the task very well and enable you to successfully prevent the stains reappearing.
A word of warning ensure the source of the stain has been cured fully first as no stain blocker can actually hold back a persistent water leak
Those that know me will be aware I am a quite a traditionalist in many ways. I was taught about old fashioned techniques while serving my time. I remember it well “Roller…roller…never mind those new fangled things get that 6inch flogger brush in your hand and paint that room properly, make sure it’s laid of accurately to” Dad would say
So it’s the same story with preparation which after all is at the heart of our trade. After exploring the virtues of dust free sanding via mechanical means and trying to assess if it could be done on a budget I would like to take it a step further. Going back to my traditional roots let’s try sanding things by hand.
Okay now I have your full attention I wasn’t actually recommending going right back to the good old days of quiors of glass paper on cork blocks sanding until tips of your fingers bled and room was completely full of dust. There is actually a modern alternative which is extremely useful.
As mentioned in the previous blog Mirka has a good name in mechanical sanding. What decorators use now are basically derivatives of machines used within the car body repair industry. The abrasives that accompany them are Abranet and the first time I used them was on this hand sander, attached to my trusty Henry hoover via the hose supplied with the starter kit, or the Handy kit
You have the benefits of an almost dust free environment, the excellent abrasive properties of Abranet and using these also has the added advantage of manual input from the user. Think along the lines of the 80’s film Karate kid.
So if you would like to improve your working atmosphere I would definitely type these into your interweb search thingy and notice the difference.
Decorators of my generation or older were probably not as aware of some of the potential damage done to our bodies, what with the lead in paint or worse chemicals or solvents emitting toxic fumes. Then there were textured coatings and other substrates containing asbestos powder. All of which used to be abraded by hand atomizing a contaminated dust into the atmosphere we were working amongst. Dust free sanders can help combat these concerns.
Brief Description
I have mentioned before about me being a bit of a decorative dinosaur, in many aspects I still try to keep alive traditional skills where ever I can. This does not however mean I also do not embrace new techniques or ideas. For the last five years I have encouraged us to become totally water based on internal jobs and within the next couple of years I believe exterior jobs will evolve naturally along the same route.
Health and safety is an integral part of any business no matter how big or small we happen to be, of course it used to be called common sense which sadly met its demise. Modern decorative apprentices are taught varying amounts of health and safety depending on what college they attend. In my personal experiences most of it suits site work or industrial scenarios more than the domestic market I tend to focus 85% of my business on.
Yes it’s important to learn how to lift correctly, but funny how lifting a ladder isn’t taught, also it’s not often a fire extinguisher and warning signs are located in most domestic households. Obviously courses have to cover all aspects but I think there are some areas many colleges miss out on.
Personal health is very important in this day and age, anything that could make your job more productive, improve the finish or most importantly produce longer term health benefits is definitely worth looking at. Having employed various apprentices I have seen some of the course work they need to complete. Some of it is very dated when it speaks of manual sanding or scraping of old lead based paints and recommends the use of a paper dust mask I think times have moved on.
Due to a rise in respiratory system diseases we need to reduce the amount of dust and debris ingested into our lungs and bodies as we carry out our work, one of the best ways to achieve this is to remove as much of the contaminates as possible through a dust extraction system.
Over the last few years there has been a rapid rise in the availability of dust free sanders with some very good systems being introduced from names such as Festool & Mirka. Both these manufacturers have top of the range sanders and dust extraction systems, although with the exception of the Mirka handy, a manual sander and hose for any vacuum cleaner predominantly their systems are fairly expensive.
I therefore set about seeing if I could organize a backup system for my own Mirka for a fraction of the cost. Alright I cheated as I already owned the extractor I was going to use on my budget system, good old faithful Henry.
But contrary to popular belief as despite contributing to a review site where you might expect I’m given things for free to receive favorable reviews, I researched and purchased the items without anyone’s knowledge of my purpose.
It did take several nights of reading various retailers review threads to decide which was going to be a suitable test subject. After a bit of deliberation I choose not one but two sanders from Screwfix for just under £50 which I thought was very reasonable.
Having owned and used these sanders for almost six weeks now I am pleasantly surprised by what you get for your money. Admittedly you need to fabricate a bit of an adapter to make the extraction work but there is a little short pipe that Henry comes with that serves this purpose, even if you wrap a bit of insulating tape around for added tightness.
Both sanders seem fairly powerful, the orbital one has five speed setting which can be useful. They are both a little heavier and probably noisier than their more well know rivals, but for occasional use it’s not to laborious. I have tried using both for various tasks many decorators will encounter to gain a broad spectrum of their capabilities.
Having initially used the orbital to abrade coatings of two oak tables for restoration and subsequently the detailed sander on the more intricate areas, they performed well on the first outing. Since then I have done various walls and woodwork areas.
As they both have the hook and loop fastening system a variety of abrasive papers can be used from standard Flexovit in the usual grades right through to Mirka Abranet which can be cut into shape for the detailed sander and purchased in the correct 125mm size for the orbital.
Pros
Very cheap entry machines for almost dust free sanding
Ability to attach various abrasive papers
Quite powerful considering cost
Variable speed on Orbital
Cons
Bit heavier or noisier than established brands
No dedicated Hoover attachment as standard
Conclusion
For the sixth of the price or either a Mirka or Festool “head unit” I managed to purchase both these useful sanders, if you can overlook their short comings of being a bit heavier to hold and manoeuvre and the additional noise, which isn’t to obtrusive theses are certainly worth a look as a step towards healthier sanding . I will continue to use mine perhaps a couple of times a week and test the longevity of both sanders but if they are connected up to a half decent hoover such as a Henry they are certainly better than nothing. Fifty pounds investment to the future of your lungs can’t be bad thing really.
Since writing this article the little Titan detailed sander eventually gave up the ghost, at first it was under guarantee and replaced with no quibble from Screwfix, on the second occasion I upgraded to this Erbauer.
Certainly powerful enough for many jobs and as before can use a variety of abrasives. Only minus point is there is not facility to attached it to a hoover, which makes it rather obsolete in this test, although I actually use it for externals and occasionally fine sanding internally to perhaps key a surface, where there isn’t going to be as much dust, just a quick run over with a hoover afterwards.
There are now many ways to achieve a “dust free” sanding set up, even on a budget, I focused intentionally on machines under £40 to see what they are capable of. Having done so I would not disregard any of the machines I have tried as good entry level tools.
ave encouraged us to become totally water based on internal jobs and within the next couple of years I believe exterior jobs will evolve naturally along the same route.