Hook and Loop Sanders

What brand of paper? I learned early on that cheap sand paper wastes so much time when sanding. I switched to ordering Klingspor; best decision I ever made. I order they’re heavy duty red discs.

Of course, if you are buying good sandpaper, then the time you said you are spending isn’t typical IMO.

-- Ev in Framingham, MA

That seems like a lot of sanding even with cheap paper. What grit paper are you using? If you are starting on a rough surface with 220 or higher grit paper, you will never get there. If you level every thing up with 60 and/ or 100 grit paper first, you can come back with the finer grits later, to take off the little scratches from the coarse paper.

-- I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. I'm sorry,thanks.

Sandpaper generally only lasts 10 minutes or so before you need to replace it.
It might seem like it’s still good to use but it isn’t.

Also make sure you go through the grits from rough to fine. If you start with a fine paper it will take forever.

Mie

-- http://www.heartofsackville.ca/

I think you need to look at your finishing processes. How are you sanding? I work more with smoothers and scrapers to eliminate sanding, but even not using them it is excessive.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

I would recomend ordering sandpaper from Klingspor also they are very reasonable when it comes to quality and price been using theres for years and haven’t been disapointed yet. Good Luck with your cabinets.

-- ~ Bob ~ Newton, N.H.

33 doors shouldn’t cost that much in sandpaper. If you’re buying from the home improvement centers you probably have a choice between sandpaper that is cheap and worthless or stuff that is good but sells in 5 packs for inflated prices. A box of 50 Mirka or Festool discs won’t cost more than $30.00 and it’s good for far more sanding than that.

I’ve used Klingspor economy discs and that is good value for the money. My preference is for the higher grade stuff like Mirka Gold or Festool Cristil though. A few extra dollars in paper to speed up the sanding a little is worth it to me.

Make sure you get plenty of the low grits though. If you’re trying to remove mill marks with p120 you’ll cost yourself a lot of paper and get no benefit for it.

For reference, I was able to sand 110 6”x20” (one face) boards and 220 6”x6” boards in about 25 hours. It would have taken longer without a 6” Rotex but even so, good sandpaper will do a lot to speed up the process.

-- See my work at http://remmertstudios.com and http://altaredesign.com

I agree that ether your sand paper is not very good or your sander or your technique or all of the above.
Here’s my first guess is that you are sanding with one or two grits that are to fine. What sounds like it would take a long time is really the best and quickest way to sand. Depending on how rough your wood is you need to start sanding with a relatively course grit like 80 sand until you get most of the defects out,then switch to 100 ,120,150.180 that’s far enough for most projects . I just start with one grit and go all the way through all the doors then switch to the next grit going through all of the doors again repeat as you go through the grits. As far as sand paper goes I prefer Mirka Gold.
http://www.amazon.com/Mirka-23-615-AP-5-Inch-Dustless-Sanding/dp/product-description/B00004U6A8
out of the all the 8 random orbital sanders I have I like this one best.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1C1CHMD_enUS400US400&q=milwaukee+sander&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=14916537387002146566&sa=X&ei=-t2ET8_nBqeaiALE9tD2BA&ved=0CJMBEPMCMAE

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I use Mirka Abranet paper on my Bosch ROS sander. I bought a couple of boxes, various weights, a couple of years ago and am still using the original pieces I started with. This stuff just takes forever to wear out. It’s a bit more expensive but after a dozen large furniture projects and still using the same 80 to 320 grit set is freaky. The stuff is like a netting that sits on your hook and loop sander. I HIGHLY recommend a buffer pad they sell to go between the paper and the hooks on your sander to protect them from accidental wear.

The stuff can be had by searching on Amazon.com

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://gagnerwebsite.com/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

I agree with Craftsman’s Abranet comment. It sands FAST and last FOREVER. I consider it the cheapest sandpaper I’ve ever bought. Be sure to use their disc as stated above by Craftsman or you will wreck the hooks on your sander’s pad.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

It’s not necessarily just the sandpaper, I use a meriad of what’s available in order to get the desired grits, klingspor is good yes, but there are other good brands as well.

However you may also want to evaluate the type of random orbit you are using, as they aren’t created equally unfortunately. My 40$ bargain bin ryobi out performs my 50$ dewalt of the exact same size…

Then it also comes down to technique as well, unfortunately, I can’t really teach you advanced sanding techniques because you first need to sand the proper way….

-- The mark of a good carpenter is not how few mistakes he makes, but rather how well he fixes them.

TCC, That is really interesting. I gave my Ryobi ROS away and hated it and bought a DeWalt that I’ve used for 3-4 years and love it. Just goes to prove “Your actual mileage may vary”!

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

Thanks for reminding me about the Abranet guys. I bought a set 5 years ago and have never tried it.
You might think I’m being smart but I gave away my Ryobi when I bought a Dewalt ROS used it once and gave that away to one of my students after buying Milwaukee ROS ,true story.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

My ryobi is one that someone had returned, I bought it thinking bleh who doesn’t need a second ROS, especially should I ever have to enlist someone to help sand…

The dewalt is not the top of the line, the ryobi may be, just getting the cheapest sander available can be… a mistake.

-- The mark of a good carpenter is not how few mistakes he makes, but rather how well he fixes them.

Thanks for all the support guys, looks like what I did was start with too high or fine paper. I was using a Dewalt Sander and started with 150 grit. I had very few machine marks and thought I could get away with that. Wrong. I was using Mirka paper.
I took yesterday off and ordered some paper from Industrial Abrasives. They have got a lot of good reviews from Lumberjocks and the price is about half of what Mirka cost. I ordered 5 different grades. I’ll start back today using 80 first.
Jim, I have the Dewalt ROS, what did you not like about it?

-- Ed- whippetlove@bellsouth.net

Hi Ed
The Dewalt I had,had a lot of vibration and almost felt like the worn out Ryobi I had used previously to that.The crazy thing is that I own at least 12 different Dewalt tools and like them. Everyone has their own take on what ROS they like ,if yours works for you fine, I just know for me the Milwaukee is some much nicer to hold and a lot smoother than all of the other ROS I’ve used including the other seven I still own. I think you will find your sanding going a lot better going through the all grits. Happy Sanding, if there is such a thing :))

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/