The orbital sanders are SLOW if you have a lot of floors to cover. You'll get the hang of the drum sander pretty quickly. When I asked around, the only people I heard "horror stories" from were, well... morons. The kind of peopel you'd NEVER loan a power tool to.
FWIW, I've done this twice now, and have had poor luck with the lamb's wool applicator... kept getting bubbles, and finish was lumpy. Can anyone chime in with the best way to apply an oil-based polyurethane? Maybe I'm too fussy, but I wasn't happy with the finish, so I ended up doing 5 coats with a 4" brush (2200 sq ft)!!
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