Improvised Spindle De-felting Tool.... Ideas?

[fireandrain 39]

Old, weathered redwood decks. That's what I get. Nearly impossible to avoided furring. Defurring with a the usual variable speed 9" not practical when dealing with the insides of spindles. Too big, difficult to control without dinging the top/bottom rails...

Methinks... Is there a better way, mechanically speaking to de-fur spindles? A natural thought for a guy who has had his helper manually de-furring 725 fuzzy old redwood spindles on this week's project.

Has anyone given thought to the idea of enlisting a small pneumatic right angle die grinder to the task of de-felting spindles? Think mini right angle buffer...big enough to handle the RPM's, but small enough to efficiently work the insides faces of the spindles...

Small air compressor, 100' of air hose, one of these small single-hand held pneumatic die grinders fitted with 3-4" black defelting pad.

It's been a long day. It's midnight. Have I lost my freakin' mind or am I onto something?

[fireandrain 39]

I'm thinking that it would need to be variable speed...

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Do it..should work. I have right angle orbital on air, just haven't gotten around to trying it as I tend to only break out the air for the palm nailer or straight chem applications.

[acegot 14]

Matt, I've got that setup. you vary the the rpm with the trigger. it uses a "Twist lock" pad set up & also had sanding pads. I'll take a picture of my setups I use & post in the next couple of days.

[814jeffw 71]

Air tools like the one shown consume alot of air because they are usually being run for a long period of time. Just make sure your compressor will keep up. Very hard on an undersized compressor (Not to mention frustrating waiting for air). I only mentioned this because your used the term small.

Jeff

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Matt,

What are you using currently as a defurring medium?

Is it the 9" IBM pads or an osborn brush?

Rod!~

[jnoden 15]

I have pretty much stopped using the defelting pads and use the osbourne brush with a $45 variable speed polisher that I have been using for a couple years now and it works great. The brush isnt cheap but someone posted an online store that had it priced around $100 for two if I remember correctly.

[RPetry 564]

Matt,

Not sure with redwood but this works well on the inside of cedar spindles. Take any used 3M defelting pad and double it over. A couple of swipes up and down the wood surface removes furring. Its a good idea to wear a tough glove to prevent any splinters. Fast and easy, and definitely a helper job.

[MudDuck 20]

Can you get a 3-4 inch osborn or defelting pad? I haven't used defelting pads yet just a Makita 9227 with 4" osborn. Haven't really noticed hard time getting in there at an angle enough to get er done.

[hoosierwindowtek 14]

I use the nylon cup brush but because I used to do spray in bedliners I got them from here:

Spray MaxLiners equipment Truck Bed liners - TrimTape

They're only around 22 bucks plus shipping.

I don't know if that's helpful but hopefully it is. :D

[big mike 14]

I use the nylon cup brush

Richard,

The Osborn brushes are carbon impregnated nylon, and they're a little more aggressive. They make quick work out of the fur. That is a good price for a cup brush, but I would be hesitant to use it because of size and abrasive power. I do not de-fur spindles ever. I tell the customer that we'll buff out the floor and handrails if necessary, but that they may see some furring on the spindles. After applying stain, the fur is a non-factor anyway.

The key to this de-furring issue is to adjust your chemical and pressure to allow no furring at all. It takes some time to figure it out, but now we rarely have to de-fur anything. The exception would be an extremely tough stripping job.