Orbital sander on maple?

Has anyone any advice on weather to use a random orbital sander on a maple floor, one of my friends said he did it and it worked fine. Everything I've read about sanding floors says to use a drum sander. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks

 

The random orbital sanders are gentler on the wood than a drum sander. It will certainly take longer to get the room sanded completly. However, there is less possibility that you would gouge or ruin the floor with the orbital. DIY success with the drum sander is varied, and with no experience using it it's easy to ruin the floor with one of these. Others will tell you they used one and had no troubles.

If your friend used one on their floor, and their floor looks good, I'd vote for getting some tips from them and follow the procedure they used. The orbial sanders are relatively new and I agree, there isn't much information out there. It's also sometimes difficult to find a place that rents them.

Are you talking about the 4-pad orbital sander, or the large pad, buffing sander?

 

I would guess it's the 4 pad model.
Thanks for the reply.

 

It will work. It just takes 10 times longer to sand the floor.

 

See if you can find the Varathane EZV sander at a rental shop. The EZV use three orbital sanders that rotate about a common head. If you don't have a lot of wood to remove, that is not much cuppping or crowning, the EZV will do the job fairly quickly. The dust pickup is even pretty good.

I'm a DIYer on floors but I've seen enough floors screwed up with rental drum and belt sanders to prefer the slower and much safer EZV.

Good Luck

Jan