# How to sand a routered Roman Ogee profile



## skogie1 (Sep 1, 2014)

I've got nice maple and walnut glue-up that I've routered a roman ogee edge into. It's got some machine marks from the router that I want to sand away. Any tips or hints on how to best sand this edge? I don't want to round off the edges so I've been going very slowly and that's taking a looooong time. Also, the maple has the edge, not the walnut, so what grits should I use? I was thinking of starting at 150 and finishing with either 180 or 220. (I sanded the top to 220). Many thanks in advance.


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## WoodNSawdust (Mar 7, 2015)

You are right, hand sanding a profile is slow work.

Perhaps on this project and certainly on future projects make the last pass on the router be less than 1/32 of an inch. This will remove many of the machine marks made by the previous heavy passes.

If you have a lot of (length) to sand you can make a custom profile sanding block. There are two ways to do this of which I normally use the second:

1. place a piece of light weight sand paper on the profile with the grit facing away from the wood. Sand the profile into a piece of ridged foam insulation board. Now reverse the sand paper and sand the wood.

2. place a piece of plastic wrap over the profile with no wrinkles then cover the plastic wrap with auto body Bondo. This will create a copy of the profile. Then place a piece of sandpaper on the custom profile and sand.

With either method you will need to use sandpaper that has a light weight paper backing so that the paper will fit tightly into the profile.

Other methods of sanding include the flap sander or mop sander. Both of these will soften the profile.

As far as grits, that depends on the machine marks and the type of finish you intend to apply. The general rule is through 220 grit for oil and 320 grit for water based. Sanding end grain with one finer grit.

Using any method the sanding will take time.


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## bonesbr549 (Jan 1, 2010)

My advice would be to take that router and do a climb cut. If you have not done that practice. With a bearing and guide, this will clear a lot off issues. I work with Cherry mostly and can get a bit of burn. that final pass in reverse, will take most issues out. Must be careful and have a good grip, but it works! If that wont do it, then I would go 100, 120, 180 to what ever you use. Me I go to 220 on long grain, and remember to go one grit higher on end-grain to help keep the end-grain color consistent and not going darker than the long grain. Works most of the time.

Good luck, cheers!


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