Is sanding supposed to be this difficult?

mitchschaft

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Stargate deconversion - Is sanding supposed to be this difficult?

So I'm trying to take this Stargate down to bare wood. Got everything stripped out and ready to go.

I tried using 60grit on this little hand sander and I get nowhere. I even pulled out the belt sander with 80grit gator paper to no avail. I was scared to use the belt after reading people eating through cabs. But I can barely eat through the paint so I'm not scared of belt sanders anymore.

This is as far as I got after half an hour. Is it supposed to take this long or should I try out a chemical stripper first?
 

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that spraypaint sucks, it clogs up your paper almost instantly, hence why youre not getting anywhere. I agree- strip it.
 
Yeah, be careful with that belt sander too. It could easily bite off more than needed.
 
+1 on strip it first. I went through about six 60 grit sheets on my orbital even after stripping most of the mess off. :)
 
Yeah..if it was just the original lacquer, it would sand well. Some paint just clogs the paper, so I agree on stripping at least the black paint then sanding with the 80 grit.
 
I tend not to use strippers as the chemicals soak into the wood, and could cause you problems later. I use laquer thinner, it works quick and you can use a plastic scrapped to remove the paint. It evaporates and doesn't stay in the wood.
 
Citristrip is awesome. Check out my progress. I think I should've sanded off the stickers first cause those ain't comin' up yet.
 

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ahahaha, that's my 8-year-old's boots that stay at grandma's house.

And I think I'll pick up that hot sticker remover since it's so cheap!
 
The hot iron decal remover worked great. Did some more scraping and cleaned up with mineral spirits.

I'll commence sanding tomorrow.
 

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One thing I'd like to point out is ditch that palm sander and get a random orbital. The square sanders will be slow no matter what and take forever.

With that being said heavy paint and stickers will foul up any sandpaper and it will take you forever to get anywhere. Don't use a belt sander on a cab, in that way the heavy paint actually helped you.. Even if you have used one quite a bit it doesn't take much to make even more work for yourself
 
I'm goin back over there tomorrow to start the sanding. I think I saw a dewalt orbital sander there, too.
 

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Much progress was done today. Got all the 80grit sanding done. I'll start on the other grits this week. We also got a bit further on the scratch-build project.
 

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