Refinishing a log cabin with the help of my 3 Festool sanders

[Frank Pellow]

This entry is divided into two parts because we are limited to 5 pictures in a single posting.

Here is Part 1:

The main building at Pellow’s camp is a Pan Abode western red cedar “log cabin” that I built in 1976. It is partly constructed on the rock foundation of the original log cabin that my dad and his friends built in the early 1930s. That cabin burned down in 1961.

I used Solignum Woodland Natural stain on the walls and that looked quite good for about 5 years on the walls exposed to lots of sun and about 10 on the walls with little exposure to sun. So, periodically I have sanded down, then re-stained different sides of the cabin. This year it was the north wall’s turn. I last stained this wall 16 years ago so the turn was long overdue as you can see from photo 1 and photo 2.
I used all three of my new Festool sanders to do the job:

• First, the Rotex RO 150 E random orbital sander in aggressive mode to remove the majority of old stain and decayed wood (with Saphire P50 paper). I also used this sander with Saphire P24 paper on the log ends. See photo 3.

• Next the Deltex DX 93 E extended triangular pad sander (with Saphire P60 paper) to remove gunk from corners and groves. Note that, when the extended pad is used, it is not possible to connect the sander to the vacuum but I was willing to the sacrifice the benefits of the vacuum for the extra reach provided by the extended pad. See photo 4.

• Finally the Duplex LS 130 EQ linear sander (with Rubin P80 paper) to smooth wood before re-staining. See photo 5.

In the past I used a combination of a Makita belt sander and a Makita palm sander. They were much harder to use than my Festool sanders, the sanding job took about twice as long, and the results were not nearly as good. Although my Festool sanders make the whole job faster, easier, and better, it still takes quite a bit of time (19 hours to be precise).

Photo attachment summary:

photo 1: The north wall with just a small section sanded

photo 2: A close up view of part of photo 1

photo 3: Frank sanding with the Festool Rotex RO 150

photo 4: Frank sanding with the Festool Deltex DX 93 E

photo 5: Frank sanding with the Festool Duplex LS 130 EQ E