These two oak tables were going to be a challenge. The first challenge was to get to the oak.

Table 1: 1/4-sheet palm sander.

Definitely a rough time.

The main board of the table started out pretty gross. I mean it wasn’t the worst I’ve dealt with, but it was bad. Water damage was the main issue. It looked like a potted plant lived on it, and then either smaller flowers or tea.

After 18 minutes of sanding. I was making some considerable headway.

There was still clearly more to do.

I kept going, and almost 10 minutes later

I think this water stain is the worst I’d dealt with. The prior step-up end table project also had some crazy water stains, but those were manageable. I wasn’t sure what would happen with these.

Let’s switch over to the the other table.

Table 2: Random Orbital Sander

But first a little bit about the sander and the sandpaper.

I had waited for the DeWalt sander to go on sale on Amazon. When it did, I got it. But the sandpaper for a random orbital sander is different from the sandpaper for a 1/4 sheet palm sander.

After some research, I came across the 3M Pro Grade sandpaper that claimed not to clog. Also that it had grit of varying size and sharpness, so rather than 80-grit, there was 80+. I got a variety pack.

It says not for retail sale on the real box, too. I don’t understand. That’s amazon for you.

I expected the random orbital sander to be much more powerful at removing material. And it was.

Water stains not as bad. Could be easy!

Four minutes of progress with the 80+.

Eight minutes in, and I saw stains I hadn’t seen before. Including a familiar big circle! Another potted plant or flowerpot, I imagine.

At the 30-minute mark, the DeWalt random orbital sander with 3M Pro Grade 80+ sandpaper had blown away the DeWalt 1/4-sheet palm sander with 3M regular 60-grit.

And the amazing thing after an hour of use:

How is there no clogging? I’d swapped out the 60-girt numerous times at this point.

The other surprise: It was never oak. I’m working with maple!

I like maple better, anyway.

More next week!

Note: This post is a little lighter on text. I’ve been struggling with WordPress to get captions back on my photos. No luck just yet, but that has eaten up a lot of time. More cool stuff later.