Re-purposing the Porter-Cable

[tom p.]

Have any of you ever used your PC for sanding wood, metal, etc? I haven`t but am about to embark on a mission: I`m going to try to sand a metal (outside) door that`s got some semi-serious rust on. I`ve purchased some #60 grit 5" discs that are intended to be used with the hook `n` loop plate. I`m not really sure what to expect. Is it aggressive or fairly gentle in this application??



My PC came as a wood sanding kit, IIRC. However, I`ve never used it like that and know I`ve got some attachments for it like a vacuum-dust collection attachment. Should I bother with it?



Thx.

[David Fermani]

There`s no doubt in my mind that it should work for general duty sanding. Start off slow to get a feel for it. People never recommended an electric DA for sanding paint, but I`ve done it quite a few times: http://www.autopia.org/forum/guide-d...wn-method.html

[tom p.]

OK, thanks. I`m going to give it a try this weekend.

[dschribs]

I used mine on about 8 doors I repainted in my house. Worked great but it goes through paper pretty quickly.

[tom p.]

Do you recall what grit paper you used? Was the surface pretty good when you finished with the PC?



thx.

[C. Charles Hahn]

I`ve sanded kitchen cabinet doors with my PC before; worked well with 120 grit to strip old finish off.

[E300Diesel]

The PC works wonders for sanding wood surfaces!

[Brad B]

Yep, have done it as well. Get a medium and fine set of discs and you are golden.

[tom p.]

Thanks, guys! I guess I`d better get another pack of finer paper.



I am going to use a rigid backing plate or one of the flexible ones?

[Jokeman]

We have the large 50`s style radiator covers in my house. They were painted with like 10 layers of oil based paint. I used chem stripper and power washed them. It did leave some spots behind so I DA`s them with my PC and 100 grit. They came out great. Some of them I used 60 grit. Either one worked good, 60 worked quicker. It left a perfect finish to spray them with single stage white.

[dschribs]

Do you recall what grit paper you used? Was the surface pretty good when you finished with the PC?



thx.

Just bought some medium and fine discs at Home Depot. And I used a flexible backing plate. The doors just needed the paint removed and a general cleaning up so it was too heavy duty of a project - but it worked great.

[TedFred]

To my knowledge the PC was made for wood to begin with and then repurposed for polishing cars at a later date...Anyway I use mine for other senading option all the time. It is a lot stronger than the standard 5 inch palm held

[tom p.]

The PC did an excellent job with minimal effort. The door turned out to be somewhat worse than i realized. The outer metal skin is rusted through...looks like it will have to be replaced. It looked pretty bad after I started sanding:











The gardener had been chewing up the wood with the string trimmer for a long time. The PC did a good, quick clean up.





5" discs from the hardware store. As noted, you will go thru a lot of discs if you are covering a large area:





I soaked the rusted portion with Eastwood`s Rust Encapsulator...we`ll have to see how long that holds







I used the PC to scuff up the entire area. I blew the surfaces off and did a bit of priming and then re-painted all the surfaces.





Finished result is as good as can be expected...looks decent as long as you don`t get too close... :tape:

[E300Diesel]

I love the application of the Rust Encapsulator :-)