Help - darned edger left waves behind

[bigtimemcalpine]

I’m sorry, not much of a contributor on this forum except when I need help. Well, I sure could use some tonight. Just spent three days wrestling with a drum sander and edger on the main floor. This is the third job I’ve used these tools for so not quite a newbie but obviously still a ton to learn. Well, I finally got through 24, 36, 60, 80, 100 grit on some previously finished oak floors. Centre of floor looks and feels great. Edges...well I have a problem. When I shine my flashlight across floor boards that are perpendicular to wall, the last 6” are wavy parallel to wall (see pics below)...obviously due to edger and possible edger user. Never had this issue before but well it’s here now.

I took some 80 grit to it land hand sanded parallel to grain for a few min. Didn’t do much. I then took the 80 grit and had sanded against grain then with grain. That muted the effect. To get rid of it, I’d be hand sanding for quite a while. Pretty sure it’sgonna show up in spades if I put some finish on there so that’s not an option. Aside from hand sanding until my shoulders give out can those of you with more experience suggest any good methods to correct this mistake?

Not too impressed with myself right now and man, I was really hoping I could move on to staining. Anyhow, any suggestions are welcome. Encouragement also welcome...I hate the feeling of heads down efforts with a goal in mind only to have a stick put in my spokes.

 

[highup]

I have an edger but I do not do wood floors. All that is used for is grinding concrete sanding the edges of plywood seams before installing vinyl and it's mostly used with 20 grit or 16 grit if I can find it.
With that said when I look at what you have I'm thinking maybe the wheels in the back aren't adjusted correctly. Or maybe the rubber pad has worn somehow creating a dish.
I've never adjusted the wheels on the back of mine, but I know they're not adjusted correctly. For what I'm doing it doesn't make any difference. I'm taking a real wild guess and saying you need to adjust the wheels. That said I have no clue as to the proper way to do it.
I'm also thinking that maybe one pass straight down the wall and then a circular pattern going from the drum sander area back towards the wall. Going back and forth like that I don't think we'll be of any benefit
Roundy round motion would probably get rid of that. I don't know how big the handles are on the drum sander but I'm thinking you should be closer to the wall with that with the drum.

 

[Mark Brown]

I like that idea, sounds solid. Lets throw it out the window for just a moment however and focus on the issue. Your edger is clearly making contact on one face and not the other, seeing how close you are to the wall i will assume the front. Second to that, why are they all linear? You are not just moving side to side with the edger are you? That is not really how that tool operates, ok it kinda is, but you will want to move laterally and vertically.
The best way to get it out if you find that your edger is inoperable for the task would be to use a orbital hand sander, possibly in concert with a belt sander with some 80ish grit on it.
Just because it is on the floor, it is still just wood. Wood will do anything for you as long as you ask it nicely, or just use to right tools

I should add, do not feel too bad, most professionals muddle it up worse than that so there ya go. Imagine running around calling yourself a hardwood refinisher and seeing results that look worse than that. You doing just fine.

 

[highup]

One other thought would be to have a flood light, a very directional halogen light right at floor level, creating shadows and amplifying minor waviness. If you can't see those waves with a strong hard side light you're probably not going to see them when looking down on them.

 

[bigtimemcalpine]

Thanks guys. This helps. Yeah, there was too much back and forth in my edging trchnique. Having said this I also think that maybe the rental edger may need some maintenance. I had a lot of trouble getting wheels adjusted such that unit works correctly.

Re the belt sander and orbital - would you run belt against grain? Also, if I go 80 with both, would I then need to double back with 100 on both if rest of floor is at 100?

 

[Mark Brown]

I would run with the grain as much as I can. Maybe just start with 100?? Easier to scale down than up i suppose

 

[highup]

My first thought is putting the edger sander up on a table where you can see it better. Put it on a small square of plywood or Masonite to protect the table. Looking sideways, with good lighting behind it, you can see how parallel the pad is to the plywood. You'd want to do that without the sandpaper first, because it would be easier to see if there's any angle to the pad. Then raise it up a tad after putting some paper on it.
There may be better ways to check this, it's just a thought.

 

[bigtimemcalpine]

Well I tried going over an area with orbital and 80 grit. Wasn’t quite doing it. I was afraid of using belt sander so went 60 grit with orbital instead. 2.5hrs later all is smooth. Now I just have to go over with finder grit. Back on track! Thanks guys. Advice was much appreciated!!!

 

[highup]

And don't think that some of us aren't learning something from your experience too.

 

[bigtimemcalpine]

Hah! Well I can only hope my experience helps someone else’s. Oh here’s another for the pile: started staining last night and ran out of stain half way through job and the most critical visual point. How the heck I am now going to avoid blotchiness when I restart staining with new batch??? Arrggghhhh. Why don’t I just approach buying this stuff the same way I cook spaghetti...always cook way more than you need!!!

 

[Mark Brown]

Looks really good mate. Other than the whole running out bit, that is no so fun

 

[highup]

I'm sorry but you're on your own. I've applied stain and I've spilled stain. That's about it. I'm guessing you start out slow and careful.