Here's a pic of the elm floor I talked about last time coated with the poly:
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Here's a pic of the elm floor I talked about last time coated with the poly:
Today was not a fun day, I was messing with a rotten door threshold most of the afternoon. I had to cut down the door, but most of the time was spent on fixing the mess from the last crew that installed the door years ago. They used two layers of plywood as the threshold, so it had to be removed down to the sill plate. The plate was beat up, and the screws holding it down...they took the hammer and beat them in, so I could not back them out. The door jams were rotten bad, the sill was doing nothing and they did not cut the bottom of the door to hit the sill right.
I made four transitions from rough timber, and not one of the doorways were the same height. The house has been added onto a few times, but no one made sure the floor would be the same height. Well, that was the easy part; the goofy outside door took most of the day.
Last week the term "soft plate" was in my blog and I said I would explain it more; here is what it means to me. Look at the pads that we keep in the truck:
There's a thick red 3/4 inch, thick white 3/4, the SPP pad and thin white driving pad 1/4-inch. The sand paper is 100-grit and 120-grit hook and loop... note that we do not use screens. I do not think that we have used a screen in three years. The big reason is they "shell" drop grit and leave a ton of scratches.
What we can do is make the paper stay flat on floor while it is "soft" and does not leave a big scratch. The thick red pad alone will drive a 100-grit pad and help remove edger marks around the doors, the thick white pad with 120 grit will slick it off like a peeled onion. I can mix the thin white with the maroon pad and it will act like a hard plate but no deep scratch. Here's the combo I use for finishing. It's a pad driver, SPP pad, white pad and 120-grit abrasive:
The fact is, you can mix and match to make it work for you and any situation or wood. I like it because with almost any setup I can get under the toe kicks to blend in the edger (toe kick) so the kitchen area all looks the same.
I do have a hard plate with bolt-on paper, we use it on pattern floors, plus we have the multi-disc sander, but the hard plate is fast and easy. Like I said, we do not use screens, but hook-and-loop grits up to 150 in 16-inch. I can make a floor slick. and we do wax floors here in the South... the better we can slick it off, the better the wax looks.
So, that is a "soft plate" or my use of the pad driver with pads and paper, it will make a floor flat but you've got to know that if you over-buff it, you can dish the floor. Make sure you stop on time and do not work the fire out of the buffer. Just get it flat with the big machine and keep it flat with the soft plate. Hope that it helps...