Sanding repaired mouldings

What's the best way to sand mouldings after a filler repair? I'm renovating an exterior panelled door (big & about 100 years old) and, having filled various bits of damage with car body filler, am sanding the door prior to painting. The flat bits are, of course, easy but the moulded trim around the panels is proving to be a bit of a challenge, as I'm trying to reinstate fairly intricate shapes. The internal mitres are especially difficult. Is there an obvious trick I'm missing, or is there no substitute for time and painstaking care?

Reply to
Appelation Controlee
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Car body filler too hard to clean up easily, traditional putty much better as it can be pressed, moulded, rubbed etc whilst still softish, and is very durable once painted. So that's the first trick you've missed! Internal corners you pick out with sharp small chisels, knife blades etc. Chisels most easily contolled if you tap with a small mallet like a sculptor, rather than just working them freehand. Other bits - tools such as small block or rebate planes on outside edges and along inside angles if you can get at them. You can use the folded edge of heavy duty sandpaper to get in to corners to some extent.

cheers Jacob

Reply to
normanwisdom

===================== A set of 'rifflers' will help to get into almost any shape or crevice:

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intended use is metal fettling so they'll easily cope with body filler. Use them partly as scrapers and partly as files. A good local tool merchant will stock them if you want to avoid the Screwfix p & p. Some places sell them individually so you can choose shapes to suit your particular needs.

Cic.

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Reply to
Cicero

A Dremmel drill or its counter part,it was made for this type of work. Although it can be a bit fierce with some bits it takes practice on some materials.

Reply to
The3rd Earl Of Derby

Use a filler that's softer than the timber, not car body filler. The risk now is that any sanding will tend to remove the wood preferentially, leaving the filler sticking up as an island. Using chalk whiting as a filler helps, silica fillers are far too hard.

For big areas and gentle curves, use a contoured foam sander. This is a lump of hard foam (some packing foams, or thick PU insulation board) which is shaped to fit the moulding. If it's new moulding, take a scrap piece of it, put some sawcuts across it and use it as a crude file to shape your foam. Harden the surface with shellac or superglue if you have a lot to do, then wrap it carefully in sandpaper. Stick the paper down with spray glue, if needed.

For tiny curved moudlings, use J-Flex (the blue stuff) which is the most flexible sandpaper I've found (woodturners love it). Wrap it around fragments of dowel, waterpipe, plastic grout fingers etc. Watch out if using it on your finger, as fingers change shape over the length of a moulding and you get inconsistent results.

For tight corners, then I prefer to scrape it rather than sanding it. I will usually make a new profiled scraper blade to go in my scratch stock (a few minutes work to make). After a while you've already got most of the profiles you need. Rifflers are also useful, especially if it's gadrooned, not just a straight moulding.

Reply to
dingbat

Hardly a trick. Putty is not a good filler. Small amounts will dry out very quickly and, if it's only the paint keeping them in place, you have ideal conditions for further rot. Body filler should be roughly shaped with a sharp chisel as it's curing i.e. within a couple of minutes. Personally I don't use it for fine detail filling for that reason. Polyfilla works well enough for that, even on exterior wood.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

------------8>< snipped good stuff

Thanks to everyone for some excellent suggestions. :-)

Reply to
Appelation Controlee

I found some of these locally and they've have proved excellent. Thanks!

Reply to
Appelation Controlee

Nonsense. Putty has been successfully used as a filler for hundreds of years and if painted over reasonably soon (within a few weeks) it sets hard and lasts forever.

cheers Jacob

Reply to
normanwisdom

The idea of painting it quickly is to stop it setting. Once dry, it's too inflexible to be of any use as a wood filler.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Seems to work OK IME, having spent a huge amount of time servicing/repairing old doors and windows, chipping out 100 year old putty etc. You must be doing it wrong! It's not only the perfect filler (for painted wood) but also the cheapest by far.

cheers Jacob

Reply to
normanwisdom

========================= I've used putty on occasions in the past as a filler but the main drawback is that it takes so long to harden. This doesn't matter in most situations but where it's likely to be knocked or touched modern 'Polyfilla' or similar is far better from a convenience point of view.

Cic.

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Reply to
Cicero

Putty (linseed oil and chalk whiting) has certainly been used for hundreds of years. However:

- This isn't the same putty. A lead-dried linseed oil will cure more happily than a modern cobalt-dried oil, particularly where moisture is high and oxygen availability is low (such as thick putty, or painted putty)

- It was never regarded as a high quality filler. Quality work, whether in picture framing or cabinetry used "compo" instead, which contains rabbit skin glue as well.

- It's not much good. It never was much good, but those were the days when we thought cholera was a good idea because we didn't have much choice about things. Nowadays we have a lot more options. In particular, it shrinks.

If you want references try these:

Historical use of fillers in trim carpentry: James Ayres' "Domestic Interiors"

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quality fillers and compo: Paul Curson's "Framing & Gilding"
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Knight's monograph on linseed oil finishes for gunstocking is also the canonical ref on old linseed oil drying processes.

Painting it over will _slow_ the curing (which is slow anyway).

Reply to
dingbat

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