PSA: My old floor sander left a weird shadow I couldn't fix for days

I was refinishing the oak floors in our front room and hit a snag. My old drum sander, a Clarke EZ-8 I got used, kept leaving a faint, wavy shadow in the middle of each board after the first sanding pass. It wasn't a gouge, just a dull patch that wouldn't go away no matter how many times I went over it. I spent two whole afternoons trying different angles and speeds, thinking I had ruined the wood. Finally, I took a break and really looked at the sanding drum in the light. The paper had worn down almost smooth in a perfect strip right in the center, but the edges were still sharp. I was basically polishing the wood, not cutting it. I learned you have to check and change that center strip of paper way more often than you think, even if the edges look okay. Has anyone else run into this kind of sneaky wear pattern with an older machine?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_hart11d ago

Okay but "ruined the wood" seems a bit dramatic lol. It's a shadow, not a canyon. A couple passes with fresh paper and it's probably gone. Those old Clarkes are tanks, they just need you to babysit the paper a little more. Sounds like you figured it out without actually wrecking your floor.

knight.xena10d ago

Yeah, joseph_hart is right about the old Clarkes being solid, they just eat paper. I read a forum post a while back where a guy had the same shadow thing, but his was from a slightly bent drum axle on a used machine. It made the center press harder. He didn't notice until he laid a straightedge on it. Your fix with the paper is way easier, I mean that's just normal wear. Idk, maybe those older models just have a sweet spot that wears faster.

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