As of Saturday I have seven and a half out of eleven treads sanded on the stairway to the 3rd floor. Why the half? Because around 8:30 Saturday evening, I was doing the back-and-forth, back-and-forth dance with the borrowed Craftsman dual-motion half sheet sander, when all of a sudden it balked. It didn't want to glide sideways unless I really pushed it. I checked and yes, the lever was set to Orbital, but it didn't feel like the orbital setting was on.
Short minutes later, a piece of dirty white plastic fell out of the thing. The sander was still running, and I tried using it in straight-line mode, which it seemed happier about. But a little later, it coughed out another piece of plastic. At this point I'd been at this one tread for over an hour and not making much headway, so I gave it up before the tool gave out altogether.
Monday, Frieda* picked up the sander (when she came round to drive me to my latest chemo session); this evening on the phone she told me they were going to take it to Sears to see if it could be fixed. My theory is that the plastic is off the mechanism that keeps it in the orbital position. With it broken it won't stay, and I won't make much progress. At least, not the right kind.
I didn't have the cheek to ask her how soon she thought they might be taking it in. She and her husband have been nice enough to let me borrow this thing and don't plan to make me pay for fixing it. But I'd kinda, sorta, really, like to know . . . because I've been on Amazon.com where they're selling a highly-rated, greatly reduced-price Bosch orbital half-sheet sander with a lot better dust control, and if I have the excuse to spend money I don't have on something that'll get the job done better and quicker and cleaner, I'd like to know sooner, not later.
Well, patience. I do have other things I need to do, even if they're not house-reno related.
1 comment:
Verry nice post
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