Our roof has these wooden support beams which are a pretty rough cut wood, I was wondering which electrical sanding tool would be the best for something like this, an orbital sander, belt sander…? Thanks!
If you have several tools on hand, just try each of them out on it and see which you like best. Don’t overthink it.
Aside from that, in general a belt sander tends to be a more agressive tool than an orbital sander. You might use the former first, then switch to the latter for the final smoothing.
I would use a seven inch disc on a large angle grinder. It’s super aggressive, def will be the fastest. A bit hard to control, and easy to have it dig in, so practice where you can’t see it. Your arms will feel the burn after.
Unless they are going for a distressed finished look, this is a horrible idea. Even with experience there is no way you’ll get a flat finish; without experience you’ll have deep pockets and very uneven, rounded corners. Maybe slightly faster than a belt sander, but it’d be negligible and definitely not after all the finish sanding that will be required after.
I’ve done several timber frames and refinished a dovetail log home with an angle grinder. You can achieve a flat finish with care, and the time difference over a belt sander is far from negligible. But it is perhaps a bit tricky for a beginner.
