This issue's Trick of the Trade comes from WFB blogger and wood flooring pro Angelo DeSanto, of Dande West in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Many cord ends have a square shoulder that gets hung up on door jambs, doors, other tools or even other cords as you sand the floor. Sometimes I'll be at the end of the wall about to raise the drum and return when I run out of cord and am stopped in my tracks with a spinning drum! I've already paced out the room to know if I have enough cord, so whatever is holding it up isn't a lack of cord. It's a common reaction to snap the cord with your free hand and send a wave down the cord in an effort to free it, and maybe it's a fault of mine … you may know where I'm going. That wave can generate enough snap to pull the cord right out of the plug. Then there's a bright flash of light and a loud buzz as the wires touch and make a scary short circuit, destroying the plug (like the one above right). So I thought of a helpful trick: tennis balls on the cord ends. They help the cord "bounce" around the jambs, preventing me from destroying my plugs and stopping my sanding jobs.
See all of Angelo DeSanto's popular blog posts and magazine articles here.
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