LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Sanding

1K views 13 replies 12 participants last post by  Tikka 
#1 ·
Sanding

Hi LumberJocks,
I am finishing a piece and doing the sanding all by hand. Usually I use a sander for this and have had a nice finish when all said and done. But after watching and reading some, I am being told that hand sanding gets the best results. I have finished about half the project by hand sanding (boy does my arm feel like it's going to fall off) and am not seeing any difference. I was looking for your input on how you guys and gals go about deciding whether to hand sand or machine.
thanks
 
#2 ·
most people probably use a ROS for all the grits, then hand sand with the grain using the last grit again. I think it just makes sure that all the scratches run along the grain. This is what I do a lot of the time at least.

Sometimes I also just do hand sanding. One bit of advice is to change sandpaper often. Someone else on here said to "change paper as if someone else is paying for it". I wish I could remember who said it because it is some of the best advice I've gotten. This applies to machine sanding too. I hope this helps.
 
#3 ·
I use a RAS and then usually do one pass by hand with the finest grit I am using. Depends on the project also..if it's paint grade I skip the hand sanding and usually stop at 180 or 200 with the RAS. As far as changing the paper thats the best advice you can heed! Don't be cheap and sand till it visibly looks worn..if you wait that long you aren't sanding anymore you are actually polishing the surface and if you plan on staining you might have a bit of a blotch problem as a result. Kind of the same idea as not sanding to a real high grit if you are going to stain..you actually close the wood pores up and polish the ends so it makes it difficult to impossible for the stain/finish to penetrate into the wood.
 
#4 ·
I hand sand raw wood only when I absolutely have to (for instance when my ros dies and I have got to finish a piece. Which happened last week). I will hand sand between finish coats since a power sander will easily sand through the topcoat. This is just a light scuff sanding with 320 grit that simply roughs up the surface and removes any dust nibs.

A method that I use to gauge when I have sanded wood enough is to lightly crosshatch it with a #2 pencil and sand until the pencil marks are gone.
 
#8 ·
I do most of my sanding with a hand held orbital sander. One is an expensive Festool 400, and the other is a very inexpensive B&D FS500. Both have holes in the sanding pad and with a vac attached they suck up virtually 100% of the dust.
 
#9 ·
I am happy with the results that my electric sander is giving me, but I just thought lets try this method and see if there is any difference.
From the response that I have been getting it seems that I am just building muscle if nothing else.
Thanks
 
#13 ·
I hand Sand Everything.just run through the basic grits.120,150,180,220, and sometimes 240 and finish with a 320 or 400. It all Depends on what kind of look you want. Like Louie said if you want glass go with the planes.Always get an awesome result with those.
 
#14 ·
After the dry fit, remove the pieces and use a smoothing plane to remove the marks and leave you with a glass like finish, if you still want to sand you can start at p240, it is faster, more satisfying, healthier (you get a cardiovascular workout and no dust) and quieter.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top