Yippie, I have a belt sander-- some where under piles of stuff in the shead.
Medium grit paper I know we have somewhere.
So now I hand sand down the top and apply the polly and then hand sand it down, apply another coat and repeat and finally coat the top with the poly.
Have I got this correct , have I missed any steps ????
Oh whats with the denatured alchol, what does that do ???
Uh....vesta?
You do realize that a belt sander requires sandpaper....in a belt? (You'll need some of the flat stuff, but it sounds to me like you might have to buy some belt sander sandpaper in at least medium and fine grits.)
Use the belt sander and do your "Heavy Work" with it and your medium grit belt sander sandpaper. Use the machine and sand with the grain of the wood, not against it. Be careful with the damned thing, because it can get out of control in a hurry. Work slowly and carefully. Get your tabletop down to the bare wood removing any gouges. The main thing here is not to remove too much material. Just enough.
When you're done with that, NOW pull out your flat sandpaper and a block of wood and hand sand the tabletop, using a fine grit, working with the grain. When you've got that like you want it, STOP.
Clean off the wood dust off the tabletop, and get out a clean rag and some denatured alcohol. The DA is a cleaning agent and it preps the wood to accept a wood stain of your choice and color. All you have to do is put some rubber gloves on, soak the rag in DA, and rub the wood with the grain a few times.
Next, take your stain of choice and color and again using rubber gloves and a clean rag or disposable brush, apply the stain to the tabletop with the grain. Apply evenly. Let set to the degree of "dark" that you want, then wipe the stain off using another clean rag. Reapply the stain, if necessary (if it isn't dark enough for you or if you have some uneven spots).
When the stain is the way you want it, then get yourself a can of polyurethane or some other sealing agent (shellac works well too) and apply a thin, even coat. Let dry, light sand using fine sandpaper. Apply a second coat, let dry, light sand. Then apply a third coat.
Voila!