For those following the messages about my grinding all the glass off of my deck, ROS vs. old rectangular sanders, types of paper to use, etc, I think I made a breakthrough last night.

I got in about an hour of work last night after my daughters softball game. The rectangular sander was doing a good job, but I ran out of paper for it. I went back to the new ROS, and made a discovery. I had been holding the sander flat to the surface (as much as possible on a curved surface) per the instruction booklet. Plus, that's about the only way to get the dust collector to work. Otherwise, the orbital action just blows the dust out from under the pad.

But, if you tip it and hold it at a slight angle and use the edge of the pad, as if you were trying to get under the glass to pry it up, and add medium pressure rather than the customary light pressure, then BOY DOES THAT SUCKER GRIND THROUGH SOME GLASS! You have to get it at just the right angle, though. Slightly off, and nothing spectacular happens. Get the angle right, and just watch the dust fly! You folks may have known that all along, but I just bought the ROS this week, so I had to learn it.

By the time I figured this out last night, I only had about 10 minutes of working time left. So, I'm anxious to get back to it tonight (if my other daughters game is cancelled, as expected) and see if it really does make a difference.

The bummer is that I figured this out with minimal work left to do. I'm down to about 1-1/2 feet left, back by the narrow stern. Like most things, it all comes down to a combination of expirementation, a little luck and some hard won experience.

Rick