mk e wrote:
mk e wrote:
And some 36 grit belt sander belts to remove the larger trowel marks and any paint splatters before I put the sealer down.
yeah....you can't smooth a floor with a belt sander, that's just plain stupid and will probably just ruin belts and burn out the sander (not sure of its condition, the respirator I wore to deal with the dust did a good job keeping the burning smell away too).
Now I need to decide if I want to spend the money to rent a concrete grinder and smooth it out properly (about $300) or say heck with it and put the sealer on as-is.
I really didn't want to spend the money for the rental and decided if I just had a diamond polishing pad that would do it and I could use it on other stuff.....so I bought a 7" valuable speed polisher that came to $42 after coupon and tax but nobody local stocks 7" diamond pads...4"is the normal size it seems, so a 4"backing pad and 3 50 grind pads for $53.
It works really well at about 2000rpm, digital readout......but a 13sqin pad takes a while to grind an 800sqft (115000 sqin) floor. About 4 hours is all I can take in 1 day, so I'm at about 8 hours with a out 2 hours left.
The floor is WAY smoother so that's good. Jack's, engine cranes and creepers with roll smooth now. Still not as flat as I might wish for but without a level you can't tell so good enough.
The digital control on the polisher does if it gets water or dirt on it then there is no way to restart the polisher....2 dead now.....yesterday I never shut it off fearing the day 1 failure....still died. I'm going to grab the cheaper non digital version this morning.
Then there is the number and partial loss of muscle control in my right foot I noticed the end of day 1.....never had that happen before....hopefully that goes away. On day 2 I learned over a short stool instead of leaned over on my knees which took the load off my back....but other than the muscles a little sort it didn't bother so I'm really confused about the foot muscle thing...weird.