Do you think you know how to sand?
sanding sucks nobody I know likes to do it
but you know what's worse than sanding
spending a month
building a project fussing over the nice
finish then moving into the house and
when the light hits the top it looks
like crap because you didn't sand
properly maybe you missed a spot the
flat surfaces might not be level and
you may have those little pigtails or
swirls on the surface
corners or edges might be rounded over
or you spend all your time getting the
most visible areas are nice and smooth but
you neglected other areas which you may
not see as much.(todayrepair)
but people would be likely to touch such
as underneath the edges of the table
tops
sanding can make or break your project
as much as the joinery or finish
and there is a lot to learn if you wish
to get the best results
this video will cover everything you
need to know from what grits to use
to how you may improve your technique
including some things
other videos and articles neglect to
tell you I really recommend sticking
around to the end
you're definitely going to learn
something new now let's begin with the
sandpaper itself
- generally, sandpaper may be broken down
- into four different types
- garnet aluminum oxide silicon carbide
- and zirconium
- garnet sandpaper is the least expensive
- it's effective for hand sanding
- but it wears quickly so i wouldn't
- recommend it for power sanders
- pay attention to the quality of the
- paper itself a lot of the inexpensive
- garnet sheets are so thin they tear too
- easily
aluminum oxide is more durable so
durable in fact it's commonly used to
sharpen
tool steel as well most premium
sandpaper made for woodworking
is aluminum oxide and it's worth the
extra price
silicon carbide is durable like aluminum
oxide
but more brittle so the particles will
fracture exposing new sharp edges
it's common in metal working but for
woodworking you're more likely to find
it on the cloth backed
belts and discs that you use on
stationary machines
sanding sheets over 400 grit are also
likely to be silicon
carbide because they're marketed for
auto body work
occasionally you may find zirconium or
zirconia sandpaper sold for woodworking
zirconium fractures differently than
silicon carbide
to expose more sharp edges it's
sometimes called self-sharpening
but it requires a lot of pressure for
that fracturing to happen effectively so
it's primarily used for metal
however i sometimes see it blended with
aluminum oxide for woodworking sandpaper
another option is a carbide sanding disc
these are made by a company called dura
grit and they come in a few
lower grit sizes i like them for
leveling and
shaping because they can be pretty
aggressive
they also seem to last forever as long
as many
many packs of paper discs in fact i've
all but replaced my coarse paper discs
with a couple reusable carbide discs
i'll link to them below this video as
you shop for sandpaper you're likely to
see terms such as
open coat and sterated open coat paper
has more room between the bits of grit
for the dust to collect
so the paper won't clog up steroided
paper has a
coating on the grit to prevent resins
and other things from gumming it up
both are useful for woodworking purposes
but the terms aren't
consistently used by sandpaper
manufacturers
so it's not always worthwhile to look
for those specific
terms my advice is to avoid buying the
cheapest paper on the market
good paper is made from good long
lasting materials
then read the instructions and make sure
it specifically says
it's for wood use if it is it's most
likely open coat
now let's talk grits you can shape wood
with really coarse sandpaper just as you
would a rasp or a file
that's where those coarse carbide discs
come in really handy
but for most woodworking projects i
start with 80 grit
80 is coarse enough to even out a seam
on a less than perfect joint or to
remove the ripples and other marks left
behind
by milling machines but 80 grit
scratches
aren't so deep that it will take forever
to remove them later with finer grits
and that's the name of the game with
sanding each grit removes the scratches
left by the grit before it
this is why you do not want to skip
through the grits too quickly
you may think you're saving money or
time by only using two grits of
sandpaper but you're not
80 grit removes material quickly but it
leaves moderately
deep scratches behind to get rid of
those scratches you have to wear the
entire surface down to the bottom
of the 80 grit scratches obviously the
finer the paper
the shallower the scratches it will
create if those scratches are too
shallow you'll have a lot of work to do
to abrade that whole
surface down to the level of the
previous grit
this is not only going to take a great
deal more time
but it wears out a lot more sandpaper if
you really make it a habit to work
through the grits
properly you'll find the whole process
is faster
more efficient and less expensive
as a rule never jump the grit more than
50 percent
that means after 80 grit you would go no
higher than 120 grit
then after that no higher than 180 grit
and so on jumping 50 percent or less
deciding when to move up a grid is
another important issue
as i said you must braid away the entire
surface of the board to the depth of the
previous grit
here's a great way to monitor your
progress and make sure you're sanding
evenly
cover the surface with pencil lines
don't push too hard with the pencil just
medium pressure
now sand it away with your 80 grit make
even
passes don't pause and push down harder
in certain areas that look like they
need more sanding
just cover the whole surface with even
strokes
at this stage the board probably isn't
perfectly
flat so you'll find pencil lines remain
in a few low spots
again don't be tempted to concentrate
more pressure on those spots to remove
the pencil lines
you'll just make the surface even more
uneven
instead re-coat the entire surface with
pencil again
and repeat the process with more even
strokes
the goal is to lower the entire surface
of the board down to the level of those
dips and valleys
so everything is nice and flat this is
especially critical on
tabletops and other surfaces that will
be visible under light
when you can remove all the pencil lines
with nice even strokes
you're ready to move to the next grid
but before you do
clean off the board to avoid cross
contamination
if a few 80 grit particles separated
from the paper
and they remain on the surface they
might get caught in the finer paper and
continue making those
deep scratches in the wood it's always a
good idea to brush or blow off the
surface before you change grits
80 was a good grit for initial
flattening
the next level is 120 and now since the
board's already flat the process is
going to be easier
but i'm still going to cover the entire
surface with pencil lines
again using just medium pressure to help
me judge my progress
by the time these pencil lines are
sanded away i'm ready for the next grid
now how high should you go with your
grits that depends on the finish you're
using
the deeper the scratches left in the
wood the darker your stains or dies will
be
if you hope to add a fair amount of
color you may go from 80
to 120 to 150 and stop
if you want a little less color you may
go from 80
to 120 to 180 instead of 150.
180 is also a good level for many film
finishes
such as polyurethane or wiping varnish
because they'll build up
thick enough to fill those 80 grit
scratches pretty quickly
after a couple coats you're just going
to be feeling the surface of the finish
not the wood
finer penetrating finishes though such
as natural oils
may not build up as quickly in that case
i would go from 80
to 120 to 180 and then finish with
220 or 240. of course i'm talking about
how finely to sand the wood itself
before you put on any finish you'll also
sand between
coats of finish and in those cases use
something much finer such as 320 or 600
because you only want to remove the
imperfections in the finish
such as dust nibs without removing too
much of the finish itself
i'll list all these grits in the
description below the video so you can
remember them
another technique some folks like to use
with solid wood is to raise the grain
before finishing this means applying a
thin coat of water to swell up the wood
fibers
and then when the water dries those
fibers will remain a little
swollen or raised above the surface of
the wood
you can then smooth them back down again
with light sanding
this will ensure that the finish itself
doesn't swell those fibers back
up and you'll have a silky smooth
surface now everyone bothers raising the
grain
but i think it's a good idea especially
if you plan to apply a water-based
finish
and the time to do it is right before
you use your
final grit of sandpaper before finishing
before we move on to some tips to help
you improve your sanding technique
i want to mention one more tip about
your grit choice
some folks like to sand end grain to a
finer grit than the long grain surfaces
in a project
for example on a table or a cabinet top
you may have end grain along one edge if
the long grain
is sanded to 220 you might see on the
end grain portion
to 320. the idea is that the end grain
will naturally want to absorb more
finish and will therefore appear darker
than the long grain will
by sanding the end grain with a finer
grit you burnish those open fibers a
little
more so they will absorb less finish and
that'll help even out the color a bit
another place you may do this is on a
raised panel where the profiles on the
top and bottom
are end grain and may otherwise appear a
little bit darker than the profiles on
the sides of the panel
now let's talk about your sanding
technique most of us do a lot of sanding
with a random orbit sander like this one
these work really well if you use them
properly
but i'll bet more than half of you
aren't using them properly
for one thing you shouldn't hog down on
them to make them work harder
while they will dig out wood faster if
you push down especially on an
edge it's a bad idea for several reasons
first it's harder on the sander motor
and the sanding pad you'll generate heat
that will begin to melt and destroy the
little hooks
that hold on your sandpaper that heat
will also cause your sandpaper to wear
out more quickly
overly aggressive sanding can also cause
bits of grit
to separate from the paper and collect
together beneath the disk
creating hard little lumps that's one of
the causes of those little pigtail
scratches that look awful under finish
you know you're pushing down too hard if
the sander stops spinning as it should
random orbit sanders spin and they
oscillate
back and forth at the same time to
randomize the scratch pattern
if you push down too hard you interrupt
the spinning part
and the sander will mostly just vibrate
you can test this by putting a mark on
the edge of the pad
and watching how the motion changes as
you add or release pressure
it's also important to have good dust
collection not because you
don't want to breathe in the fine dust
which you don't
but also because allowing dust to build
up beneath the sander is another cause
of those little pigtails we all hate
some sanders claim to have good built-in
dust collection with bags and even
filters
it's all nonsense you need active dust
extraction from a
shop vacuum or a dust extractor
believe me proper dust collection will
make the sanding process more tolerable
and produce better results finally do
not rely on your random orbit sander for
every grit it's always a good idea to
sand by hand with a sanding block
for the final grip moving with the grain
this will ensure you get rid of the last
of the swirl marks that a power sander
may leave behind
a lot of woodworkers neglect hand
sanding but i think it's critically
important
not everything is best done with power
tools hand sanding for your final grit
will make a big difference
even if you only do it on the most
visible surfaces in the project
finally keep in mind that many of these
techniques apply to
solid wood plywood's a little different
when you buy that nice oak or maple or
birch plywood
you have to be careful not to sand
through the ultra thin veneer on the
outside
i don't use anything more aggressive
than 180 grit on veneered plywood
and i'm careful with that you can't
really level
a plywood surface you get what you get
it's one of the downsides of the
material
if you try to level it with the
techniques i just discussed you may sand
through the veneer
just give it a quick sanding with 180 or
220 and call it good
we could talk all day about sanding
techniques we may make a follow-up video
down the road about more mistakes people
make with random orbit sanders
but the tips in this video should really
help you up your sanding game for your
next project
see you next time i've been using dura
grit carbide sanding products for years
and i still haven't worn out the first
ones i bought
if i have a rough edge to smooth a
corner to chamfer or curve to shape
more often than not i'm reaching for one
of these cleverly designed tools
it's one of those workshop secrets i
wish i discovered long ago
check out the link below this video to
see for yourself wait
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