Retired Floor Sander's 66-Year Love Affair With His Clarke Sander

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Ask retired flooring veteran Eugene Stone to give his vintage 1951 Clarke F12 12-inch drum sander a nickname and you begin to understand his relationship with it. He tried "Asskicker" first and then "Little Sweetheart," but eventually hit it on the head: "She's the Moneymaker."

He inherited the sander from his father, who added it to a fleet of Clarke sanders used by his five-man shop. The company ran Clarke sanders exclusively, and Stone started working for his dad on the 8-inch drum sander as a 12-year-old. He gradually made his way behind the 12-inch, which Stone says weighs a minimum of 200 pounds, and began to understand how aggressive the 12-inch was.

"If you lean on this machine, it will blow right through the floor," he explains.

Once he figured out how to control it, he never turned back. Stone hasn't used a different sander his whole life, not even to test one out. He loves his machine so much he uses its name as his username on the Wood Floor Business Forum: CF12Driver. The machine has returned his loyalty with reliability and, more importantly, a living.


RELATED: Blast From The Past: Wood Floor Tools and Machines from Yesteryear


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