When we refinished the floor in our house we didn't get a belt sander. From our local Knoxx (or Payless Cashways) hardware store, we rented an orbital sander. It worked great. It came with a very helpful video. Didn't bother asking the store guys to demo the machine. The sander was a breeze to use. Didn't do any damage to the floor. Didn't pull any muscles or end up with a sore back. I got a sore back from pulling all those darn carpet tacks and filling each hole with wood putty. We opted not to stain. The polyurethane finish was easy as well.