I'm getting ready to put down about 1600 sq ft of reclaimed maple hardwood in my house. I want to go at my own pace and pickup a used floor sander on craigslist or elsewhere. Can the old floor polishers that run circular disks be used for sanders or do they leave too many scratches? What is a good model, brand or style of sander to look for?

I searched for a bit before posting and didn't find relevent threads so if there is a good discussion on this please point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Stan.

You could find many Clarke EZ-8 sanders on ebay. The are decent to operate and are not price prohibitive. I used one for a few years before biting the bullet and getting a "real" sander.

You will need to start sanding with 24 Grit, and making your final cut with 80 Grit before sanding with the buffer.

If you go this route I can help you plan out a sanding procedure if you need.

Can you list a few models and put a good, better, best on them so if I'll know if it's junk or not? Thanks for the tip but there are none close enough on ebay yet, I'll keep an eye on it.

I will take you up on the sanding plan when I get ready. Right now I've tested a few pieces of floor by running them through a planer and took the least amount off (about 1/8") to get a clean cut without the finish and painted stripes from the gym floor. I think it will be worth the effort and I should save a lot of sanding time since it is clean wood. I still have to deal with cleaning the tounge and grove since they have some old finish builtup on them. This reclaimed floor is not such a great deal after I do all this work

Thanks,
Stan.