Makin Some Sawdust

Needed to get an idea of how bad (or conversely, how good) the panel trim is. I will be making new holes for the new recessed outlets and I'll have to plug up a few of the old holes where wiring for the old outlets and the old baseboard heaters were.

So as motivation-with-the-side-bonus-of-accomplishing-something, I decided to make a pass with the trusty Ryobi orbital sander. I will wax (sand?) eloquent about this puppy in a few paragraphs. Mentioned it a few times so it deserves some of the limelight.

Zo, ve grab up ze sandpaper, yes? One learns after a while that the small packs of sandpaper for orbitals usually go pretty fast, so I've taken to buying the "job packs" of sandpaper. That way you know you have some around most of the time. Of course, when your job pack is empty, choo have a problem.

I like to think of this picture as...art. It's art, innit? I mean, lookit the camera angle? I Am An Artist With Dis Camera! I think it really was the sanding dust that made me do this.

Whatcha see here is the panel before sanding. There's a ridge where the old floor molding met the panel, and all kinds of dents and I-don't-know-what on the wood too. This is exactly why I wanted to make a quick sanding pass - to see how much work lies ahead. Not too bad actually.

Hokay. If choo have been reading dis blog, choo know about The Ryobi Random Orbital sander. This thing rocks - and it really is amazing considering it cost a mere $40. Foh-tee dallahs!

To be precise, it's a Ryobi R280VS. Takes 5 inch disks, and has like 5 main speeds, but you can click in between em and get more variations. I've used it on a bunch of painting jobs and it rocks. Fairly lightweight and easy to handle.


Plus you gotta love the little dust bag on the end. For most sanding jobs it does well at catching most of the dust. It did get overwhelmed when I took it to the ceiling to sand the drywall seams, but that's a crazy amount of dust in any event.