Hi All, I'm knock up some shop tables with some 4 x 2" I 'reclaimed' off a skip. Comes from a loft conversion, so is probably 100 years old, meaning lovely and dry (no Wickes banana wood / seeping knots!). Thing is, I want to sand it back, then re-seal it. I did a bit by hand with sandpaper, and it's a lovely light gold under that dark brown surface. 2 questions: I've got about 100 foot of this stuff, so can't do it by hand.....what sort of sander should I go for (e.g. belt, random orbital?). Anyone recommend a decent, cheap-ish machine? Or should it all go through a thicknesser (do places do this, and what do they charge?) Other question: what should I seal it with? I want it to look like there's no varnish or anything on it. Should I use wax or what do you reckon? All the best & thanks for looking - and any advice you give.
No one will put reclaimed through a thicknesser. At least I wont. Too much chance of hitting nasties. Sander wise I would go with a 6inch ROS like the Metabo SXE450.
As gb says you'll struggle to convince anyone to put reclaimed through their planers, although one option would be to buy yourself a small planer thicknesser. If you want a quality sander that'll last forever then look at mirka or festool, the festool rotex is a good option if you have no other sanders, as it has 3 stroke modes meaning it can be used for aggressive coarse sanding - ideal for taking the wood back initially , fine sanding to get it ready for finishing, and can also be used as a polisher which is not relevant to your task but handy nonetheless .
For aggressive sanding I use an angle grinder with a nylon backing pad and abrasive discs. This will tear off the top surface and expose the wood beneath, but you need to be canny with it.
It would depend on how rough the timber is to start with. Old pallet type timber Old floorboard type timber I would go along with welsh dragon and go with the belt sander. If its that rough you could run an electric planer over it first set at 0.5 to take the worst off and then belt sand
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