I would get the 3×4″ electric ray with vacuum compatibility in the sanding system kit that comes with a variety of foam pads and film sanding sheets. That is enough to get you started. I personally would buy more medium and fine 1/2 foam pads. And some sanding screen in the grits that you need if you will be sanding off the finish on any project.
Goodluck!

Hey Annie!
What a project!
I can’t say for sure unless I saw the detail. If it has a lot of tiny and tight grooves and crevices, the foam pads won’t get deep into them. It works very well on details that are bigger. But in the tight grooves and crevices I usually still hand sand.
Best of luck with your project!

Thank you very much for your review. We recently bought an older house and remodeled it. However, we chose to keep all the wood doors, banister and some wainscoting. The doors have the panelling details with the four squares within them and the staircase/railing has the detail on each spindle. We have tried to pay to get someone to sand them but our painter wouldn’t do it. I’m thinking that this sander would really help if I decided to do the job myself. based on your experience with the flexible pads, would this sander save me a lot of time sanding all this wood. The wood is stained the old golden oak and I am hoping to sand it all and restain a more natural finish that would match our flooring.

Thank you for your help!

I love tha Zibra brushes are really affordable and that they come in different shapes that really help when painting surfaces that aren’t flat like a wall. A flat, regular paint brush has a harder time getting into the details that a lot of furniture has.
As for milk paint, yep I always seal it in some way shape or form. My fav is waterbased poly. But wax is great too!

Hey Eric,
I think the information you’re looking for is in the sister post to this one, here SurfPrep Sander – What happened when we put it to the test?.
Hope that helps!