Serious Sanding

We have these wrought-iron/wood patio chairs and bench that have been left outside too many winters.  Rather than throw them out, I decided to sand the wood down and re-paint and varnish.  This is a picture of the bench, before I started sanding.

The sanding was hard on my arm/wrist, and I broke Chris's electric sander (twice).  I must have been pressing too hard and burnt out some plastic piece.  The Handyman was able to fix it both times so that I could at least finish phase one of the project.  Here is the after-sanding bench.

Phase two was to use the Citol to paint/stain/glossify.  Needs 3 coats, and I was able to do the fist coat on the bench and all 4 chairs.  Check out the bench below after the first coat.  I love sanding now.  I want to sand everything now.