Sanding questions!

[Pvthom]

Hi all, starting the daft bank holiday questions early...

I've just started sanding my bedroom floor. I've done two passes diagonally at 24 grit to level
and clean thetvosrss and there is still quite a lot of dirt etc on the boards. I've attached some pics. Should I continue at 24 grit until they're visibly clean or should I be dropping down grit to 40(or less)?

Secondly, I've now had three sanding sheets rip out and shatter. When inspecting the drum afterwards they appear to be staying in place at one side of the gripper but coming out at the other side. Is this possibly a faulty sander or is it possible I'm fitting the sheets I correctly? I'm screwing the screws in very tightly.

Grateful for any tips

 

[pilsbury]

I’ve done this only once on my lounge floor. The bits of left over stain/paint/varnish are because your boards are cupped/dished as they’ve dried over time. Mine were just like this. I used the super coarse paper going both diagonally and also along the grain to remove all the crap and flatten the floor before going finer grit. Yours ain’t bad for 2 passes. I did loads. I think the place I hired off gave me 4 different grits. I only used the coarse stuff and the fine stuff. Didn’t find a need for the middle grits.

As for the paper coming off the drum, have you banged in all the nail heads into the floor? If it always seems to be coming off one side, maybe the gripper on the drum isn’t quite level. Possibly from the abuse it’s suffered. Try packing that side out a bit with a piece of old sanding sheet before cranking it up.

 

[Pvthom]

I’ve done this only once on my lounge floor. The bits of left over stain/paint/varnish are because your boards are cupped/dished as they’ve dried over time. Mine were just like this. I used the super coarse paper going both diagonally and also along the grain to remove all the crap and flatten the floor before going finer grit. Yours ain’t bad for 2 passes. I did loads. I think the place I hired off gave me 4 different grits. I only used the coarse stuff and the fine stuff. Didn’t find a need for the middle grits.

As for the paper coming off the drum, have you banged in all the nail heads into the floor? If it always seems to be coming off one side, maybe the gripper on the drum isn’t quite level. Possibly from the abuse it’s suffered. Try packing that side out a bit with a piece of old sanding sheet before cranking it up.

Thanks, good to know it's normal to require lots of passes, most of the guides imply you do one pass with each grit. Will see what I can do about the paper coming off as you suggest too.

Thanks again