best tool for this job?

that certainly won't work. Look at the direction of the blade movement.

NT

Basically, tradition.

Makes the wood look much worse.

I have now managed using thicker filler to do this in one. BUT the 'minimal sanding' is still a lot and very arduous.

My old permeagrit is essentially that. I am going to use my newer one because the old one is 'plumb wore out' - which shows how much its been used as both wood ceramic and metal file..

I think having recieved all the good advice, that that is as good as it will get for the 'irreducible residue' of sanding...

A matter of personal taste

If I had wanted it to look that way I wouldnt have used oak in the first place.

It was the sandblasting that put the plaster in such a bad state last time

Built.

No, there was a planning issue with the overall height. I am down on the minimum.

And the main cross beams being 12" deep are a shade below and almoost head bang territory for tall friends .

That certainly *would* work... think about it.

Do I recall correctly you rebuilt it on the same site as a previous house? Presumably that might make them want to limit it to not taller than the original, which if its old enough would likely be quite short. When you then add modern joist depth requirements, you potentially have more of a headroom problem.

Yup, I have that problem at my Aunt's place over near Clair - mostly ok downstairs, but I have to take great care walking about upstairs, there is something waiting to clomp you at every turn!

Since it's so obvious it would not and could not I can only presume we have a miscommunication going on.

NT

Quite likely... Perhaps a drawing will help (excuse the crudity of the model):

So I am going to assume that the back end of the saw stays roughly in place, since that is where its being held and the trigger pulled etc.

The longitudinal movement of the saw and hence pad is on a slightly inclined plane[1], so there will be a small vertical component of the pads movement. As the stroke shortens, the natural movement would thus tend to pull the pad out of contact with the ceiling. However upward pressure exerted by the operator will keep it in contact. This will mean that there is some rotation around the pivot point of the tool, and thus by extension some rotation of the pad as well. A completely flat pad could therefore only ever be in full contact at exactly one angle - tending to ride on the trailing or leading edges at any other angle. Adding the slight radius means that there will always be part of the pad that is co-planar with the ceiling.

Another sanding option that occurred to me, a sanding drum in an angle drill, to create something akin to a powered abrasive roller.

It may be because I'd assumed TNP was using a lightweight filler but I'm hearing a distant cockney voice saying something about only blowing the doors off :)

So you plan to have your hand bobbing the tool up & down at the necessary rate to keep the pad touching the ceiling. Good luck with that! I certainly won't be trying it.

NT

yep. File sanders or finger sanders. But the cheap ones are crap.

polyfilla is currently in use.

So you agree it will work then...

(Do the sums and you will see the actual amount of movement vertically is pretty small... in use it will be similar to using the saw to plunge cut through a surface)

I find the filler designed for filling taper edge boards is *much* easier to sand nicely (and quickly) than polyfiller.

The problem I have with those on applications like this, is that you are sanding just with the nose of the belt, and its very difficult to keep a level cut - you tend to get undulations in the sanded surface because they are too narrow to index off the flat reference surface beside the bit you are sanding...

Something like the larger drum here:

Will give you a wide reference surface contact - although you will still have to keep the drill moving to avoid ripples in the surface.

obviously I didn't.

Why don't you get back to us when you've tried it.

NT