The 100 grit sand paper is a little too scratchy to serve as your initial surface for painting on. I would be tempted to sand your initial coat of paint with the 400 grit to knock back the high points that the initial paint coat did not level off.

As for the Porter Cable, I would suggest spending the extra bucks to get one. It will last years longer and make each time you use it a pleasure ( and less work ). So you may get bitten a little harder on your initial cash outlay... but in the long run you will have a piece of hardware that you will be happily using years from now...

One of the secrets I shared with folks is how I got a Porter Cable cheap... I found we had a local factory warranty outlet in our city. I popped over there and they had the PC's all bundled up and going for 89 bucks.... They had refurbished units and new units all bunched together.

The new units were simply new units that had been returned from stores because people had stolen things out of the retail box. So they send them back to the refurb shop who are not allowed to sell them as 'new'... so they get unloaded through the refurb shop at the reduced price. Plus they also come with a full warranty or a slightly reduced full replacement warranty.

You might be able to find a used unit in your local Pennysaver type news paper... or in the want ads of your local paper. Possibly you might be able to catch a price reduced unit on eBay.

Since these things are built like tanks, I would have no qualms about buying a used one.

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