My friend has 12 10 inch wide stair treads that already have finish and an old coat of poly on them. Can I run these through my dw735 just to take the poly and the finish off so we can refinish them?
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My friend has 12 10 inch wide stair treads that already have finish and an old coat of poly on them. Can I run these through my dw735 just to take the poly and the finish off so we can refinish them?
Member
Keith - the answer is a 'yes - but....'.Originally Posted by keith micinski
IMO, you will kill the blades in the planer. Not a big deal if you're OK with flipping to the second edge (or replacing the knives). Otherwise, you'd be better off hitting them with a belt sander to get the finish off, and then planing to get a good surface.
I had some old boards from an old oak desk that had some sort of finish on them. they cleaned up nice in my DW735, but then the next time I used the planer (several weeks later) I had all sorts of problems with the stock binding up, burning, snipe, etc. New blades fixed the problem - so I assumed it was because of those boards...
FWIW, when floors and stairs are refinished, they're just sanded. I have no experience with this, but someone else might chime in on the best way to do it. As long as they're not really banged up I don't see why you'd need to sand all the finish off and plane....
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger....then it hit me.
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Well, I have tried sanding with a random orbital and some 60 grit and it would take about two months to get these cleaned up enough to be refinished. They are stained a really dark walnut color and he is wanting more of a tongue oil look. I might tell him we will plane them and he will just have to buy me new knives. I think that will be cheaper then buying all new treads.
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Well I just thought of something else. These treads are only held down with four face nails so maybe I can pop them up and flip them over. They have an attached bull nose on them that I probably wouldn't even have to remove.
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Go to Lowes and buy a cheap scraper, the kind with a replaceable blade that you pull across the wood. They do a good job of removing paint or other hard finishes. Just becarefull that you don't dig in to the wood with the scraper blade.
Last edited by Bob Glenn; 02-06-2010 at 5:28 PM.
Life's too short to use old sandpaper.
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Member
That's a good idea too. I am having him pop one of the treads up to see what the bottom looks like. That will probably be the easiest and cheapest solution.
Member
Keith, the treads might not fit right if they are flipped over.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger....then it hit me.
I wouldn't waste a set of knives on them. Strippers now come in a friendly format that doesn't knock your nose off your face and they work quickly as well.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
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Thats possible, but it wont cost me anything to try and I am pretty could at making things work on these rehabs where conditions aren't exactly perfect.
Member
In that case, I say go for it. And the scraper suggestion is a good one too.
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger....then it hit me.
Contributor
If you can infact reuse these treads the cost of a complete new set of knives will pale in comparison to what you are saving when you add up scraping, sanding, stripping, AND having to plane after the finish is removed. A new set of 735 knives is what 50 bucks? If you only wipe out one side of the knives thats 25 bucks. 10-15 bucks a piece for the treads would put you at 150.00 if you had to buy them new. When we had a 735, or any lunchbox planer for that matter, we look at the knives like a saw blade on a skill saw. If you are going to do any quantity of work, you better get settled with the fact that they are a consumable. Luckily for the 735 replacements are cheap.
I think your real issue will be how much will you have to plane to get rid of the walnut stain. They could get pretty thin which wouldnt be good. If you want to follow the letter of the law, you should also plane equally off both sides to avoid cupping. This would make them even thinner.
Mark
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I agree that, is why I am hoping I can flip them and just knock the bottom down with a really fine pass on the planer then finish sand the bottom side which is now the top side.
Contributor
That is the best way to go if possible. Sometimes that is not possible however as if they have been installed for any period of time (likely have) there is often a stain similar to that of a sticker stain on rough lumber where the stair stringers were. This stain can usually go very deep and will never be planed out. If your treads have no stain on the bottom then flip them. Planing should be simple at that point.
What would likely be best on the nose end would be to simply rip 1/4" off the nose on the table saw and re-run the nose with a router. This would be much easier than sanding the nose down to bear wood.
Mark
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Member
The nose is actually a 3/4 piece that was applied to the tread after wards. A lot of them are actually coming off so I might just take them off and make new ones anyway to avoid the sanding.
Contributor
Ouch, its becoming clearer why these treads were free. As the old saying goes, one mans trash,...
I its one of those situations where you have do decide how much you are going to devalue you labor. New Oak treads cost money, but perhaps 150-200?
Of course if you devalue your labor to 0 then its a steal. However if you apply even a modest $25/hr to your time and equipment you may have 4 hours after material costs to rework them. After that it would seem far more effective to buy new.
Mark
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