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PSA: sanding my stair railing by hand vs the orbital made a 4 hour job into a 40 minute one
I put off refinishing the railing on our stairs for almost two years because I remembered how much my arms hurt the last time I did it. Finally caved last Saturday and started on the top rail with 120 grit wrapped around a sanding block. Got maybe a third of the way down one side in about an hour and my shoulder was already talking to me. My neighbor Rob came over to borrow my ladder and saw me sweating, and he said just use the orbital with a light touch on the flat parts and save the hand work for the curves. I was scared it would gouge the oak but I set it on low and kept moving and the old finish just came right off in nice even passes. Whole top rail and the two flat sides of the newel posts took me about 40 minutes total. The spindles I still did by hand because the orbital wouldn't fit, but that was the smaller chunk of the job anyway. Both rails are now stained and the difference next to the old yellowed finish is night and day. Rob's getting a six pack out of this one. How do you all handle the curved bits without ruining the profile, do you use those foam contour pads or just fold the paper and go slow?
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