Hi Larry, I see that you have had a couple of opinions. As usual though mine is a definite "probably".
Certainly the ideal tool would probably be a belt sander, failing that a random orbit sander. Depending on how the boards are fixed to the bench maybe a power hand planer or even a medium sized hand plane like a #5 Stanley so long as there are no screws or nails fixing the boards down. Having said all that, I have, in my distant past done a lot of work with sanding disks in a hand drill and see no reason why you couldn't too. IT takes a little work and isn't elegant but neither is the bench and a lot depends on how you intend to finish it after. Don't know how this will translate to your particular grinder, I am not too familiar with them but in a hand drill using a rubber disk with a paper disk I held the disk just slightly tilted so that one half or less of the disk is cutting at any time. Try to keep this running more or less in the direction of the grain for cleanest stock removal, if cutting across the grain it is going to turn out more wavy and choppy. Move back and forth along the direction of the board one at a time usually until you have removed the roughness.The point here is to remove material until you are getting a more or less splinter free flat surface. Take care and check often, it is easy to take a little too much off the edges rounding them and although this is not necessarily too bad to a point it can get out of control. Once you get the surface close to how you want it, go to sanding blocks with coarse paper and begin removing the swirls that the disk has left. You will need to work through several grades to get it all out but this is an outside project so probably you don't need to go finer than about 120 grit. If you are using an exterior grade stain to protect the wood I recommend something opaque which does not show the wood through. Mostly I use dark walnut, oil based probably is a little more durable but latex goes on easy and cleans up with water and works fine.Only really bad sanding marks will show through and if you have worked with hand sanding for a bit there won't be any of those. This is not fine furniture, it is rustic outdoor behind the shed furniture. It may be that some of the deck needs replacement when you get looking at it closely enough. You can get a pretty decent belt sander for around a hundred bucks if you think you will have future use for one. I don't have a decent random orbit sander but I believe you can get a reasonable one for a similar price. Remember though that if there are arms or other members they will limit your ability to get close to them with a machine sander of any sort. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Stansifer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 6:28 AM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Messed up old bench > Hi gang, > > I am about to embark on what for me is a huge wood-working > project. > Behind the Devil Dog brewing shed is an old bench > constructed of 2x4's placed edge wise. This means that the > seating portion of the bench is the width of the 2x4 rather > than the thickness. It is extremely weather worn and I would > like to rehab it. > I do not own a portable belt sander which I am guessing > would be the weapon of choice at least in the beginning > stages. I do however own a 6-inch hand-held all purpose > grinder that will perform a number of functions depending on > the kind of wheel I attach to it. It will power a sanding > wheel, wire brush or a variety of cutting and grinding > disks. > Will this grinder equipped with the appropriate sanding or > grinding media work in place of a belt sander? > > Regards > > > Larry Stansifer > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various > List Members At The Following address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! 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