Re-purposing the Porter-Cable

tom p.

tom p.

Active member
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.
 
I used mine on about 8 doors I repainted in my house. Worked great but it goes through paper pretty quickly.
 
Do you recall what grit paper you used? Was the surface pretty good when you finished with the PC?



thx.
 
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?
 
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.
 
tom p. said:
Do you recall what grit paper you used? Was the surface pretty good when you finished with the PC?



thx.
Click to expand...



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.
 
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
 
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:



DSC_3000_001door.jpg




DSC_3002_002door.jpg




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

DSC_3005_003door.jpg




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

DSC_3006_004door.jpg




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

DSC_3008_005door.jpg


DSC_3010_006door.jpg




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.

DSC_3011_007door.jpg




Finished result is as good as can be expected...looks decent as long as you don't get too close... :tape:

DSC_3012_008door.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top