Another One Bites the Dust...

Well, a disadvantage to finishing concrete counters is that you kill orbital palm sanders. We are currently on number three. If you're looking for a recommendation, we'd tell you to buy a Rigid R2600 5" orbital palm sander, available at the Home Despot for about $70. Powerful, consistent, and best of all, the exhaust fits onto a standard shop-vac hose. Less mess is always better! We used the last one until it began whining and smoking this weekend. It still wants to keep working. Poor little thing. The one issue with the Rigid palm sander is finding replacement hook and loop pads for the machine. The Despot does not sell them. You cannot buy them from Rigid. Sigh.

Rigid tools come with a lifetime warranty, so I'm assuming they want you to send it in to get the parts replaced. It probably takes several weeks (down time in this project we do not have). However, I also assume sanding concrete voids the warranty. Anyways, the one for Ryobi fits well enough to use for its short life.

We are spending the weekend trying to get the counters done and sealed. B and I started sanding after work this week.
We've put on about four skim coats. The skim coats are a mix of portland cement, concrete dye, and "milk," a concrete fortifier.
B mixes it until it is the consistency of frosting, then uses a float to apply it into the low spots.

B is currently hand sanding the last skim coat this morning so we can seal the counters. At 6:14 in the morning. In his robe. Yes, we are ready to be done with this project.