Todays Project - What did you do today?

[TomG]

Spent a long weekend at the cabin refinishing the original yellow pine flooring. Last time we were up, we stripped out the old carpeting and much to my dismay, I discovered that the padding had been GLUED to the floor. I knew that trying to sand it off would instantly plug the sandpaper, so I opted for a floor polisher and a heavy duty scrub pad to get the glue off and some silicon carbide screens to scuff the finish. That didn't work at all. The adhesive was so hard after 35 years that all the scrub pad did was polish it. The screens worked, but all I took was a few 100 grit and they were way too fine, so the next morning we headed back down to find more, since nothing like that exists in the U.P. We ended up at a rental place in Petoskey, 100 miles or so to the South and grabbed 10 60 grit screens, then stopped at the Depot and grabbed a 6" orbital and a pile of discs for the edging. Ten hours and nine screens later it was ready for finish. The screens did the job on the adhesive, but weren't aggressive enough on the wood to get down into and pockets and cups, so that all had to be done with the orbital. WHAT A PAIN. Anyway I got two coats of oil based poly on and let it cure overnight. We spent the next day cleaning and setting up the new area rugs and furniture that we hauled up. The whole thing turned out well and the wife is ecstatic, but man am I beat. On top of it all. I had planned on getting out to ride in between coats, but there is still snow on the freaking trails. I quickly found that melting icepack and dirt bikes definitely don't mix.

Tom