I created a profile for my Festool Linear sander and it sort of worked

[Frank Pellow]

The exact model of this sander is Duplex LS 130 EQ.

I am refinishing my cedar garage door and want to remove the stain that I applied nine years ago. The challenge is the complex recessed groove that is present around each of the 30 panels in the door. None of my electric sanders fit into this grove.

Festool sells a “make it yourself” kit for their linear sander to allow one to manufacture their own profile. So, I thought that I would give it a whirl. The steps are shown in the pictures attached to this post as well as the next one.

In this post:

(1) attach velcro with sticky backing to molding

(2) sanding mould attached to sander

(3) 60 grit paper attached to Velcro

(4) grinding the profile into the mould

-there is another step not shown here where one uses 120 grit paper in order to “fine tune” the profile.

(5) mould with the correct profile

[Frank Pellow]

(6) contact cement on mould and on back of Velcro

(7) velcro applied to mould then trimme

(8) drilling 6mm holes through velcro

(9) sandpaper attached and ready to go (I tried both Rubin P80 (cloth backed) and Brilliant P100 (paper backed) –the Rubin removed the stain better but the Brilliant got into the crevasses somewhat better)

(10) to result (notice that there is still some stain in the crevasses)

I am somewhat disappointed in the result. It certainly is better than using any other sander that I have and better than hand sanding, but it is still quite time consuming and does not completely remove the old stain. I guess that this is not really the typical job that the sander or the mould is intended for. By the way, I am able to get into the crevasses with the edge of my Festool DX 93 E and clean up what the linear sander leaves behind.