Is it just me?

[ken]

Is it just me or is sanding a pain in the butt? Have cut out the parts for a fancy bookshelf from 3/4 in pine. Started with 120 moved to 220 and will finish with 320. My B&D sander really doesn't like to hold the paper all that well. My old B&D done much better. When it's motor burnt out I kept the bottom and use it as a hand sander. Man can it hold the sandpaper. This is about the third sander I have bought over the years and always bought a cheap B&D. Maybe next time i will look a little closer at the mechanism that holds the paper. Sometimes I guess you should pay a little more. Ken , NS

[Mike in Mystic]

get a Knight Toolworks smoothing plane and you can greatly reduce your need of sandpaper :)

[Bay Area Dave]

i think you are going overboard on the sanding. why not stop at 180 before applying the finish, except for exposed end grain, where you could do 220 or higher...

dave

[e-mail] wrote:

[Bay Area Dave]

your reply reminds me of a saying I repeat often when watching movies with obvious plugs for products: "shameless product placement!". I think the worse offender was "Back to the Future". I love the movie and have seen it at LEAST 15 times, but check out all the brand names in that sucker!

Who can think of other movies with lot's of visible brand names (like beer cans/bottles with the label towards the camera)?

dave

Mike > get a Knight Toolworks smoothing plane and you can greatly reduce your need

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Stop at 220. That is all you need.

Yep, buy a good random orbital sander such as the Porter Cable or Dewalt. You'll be surprised at just how bad the BD you have is. You'll be done in half the time. Ed

[Swingman]

One word: Random Orbit Sander ... well, you get the drift.

You will find a ROS works much better than those old B&D's. Take your choice: Makita, PC, Bosch, etc. I use a Bosch 6".

I use the ROS to run through grits up to 180, then sand by hand with 220 ... or, if the size, wood and finish requires, to 320 (hand rubbed oil finishes).

Sanding by hand on the higher grits gives you a chance to go over the wood and feel all the details and doesn't take all that long if you've done a good job with prior grits ... I've got to where I enjoy that latter part of the process down through the years.

Also, buy ONLY the best grade of sandpaper, change often, and save yourself a lot of time in the process.

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

Bought a PC 333 and loved it. Never had any good luck w/Black & Decker though some have.

[Young Carpenter]

1st depending on what look you are attempting, 150 on basic white pine (Yellow is tougher) is often like sanding down maple to 220. 2nd, sometimes history repeats itself until someone gets it right. apparently you haven't. 3rd. I have a craftsman, a shopcraft, and a B&D ROS sheet sander at my disposal, they all have different OPMs so I use the slower OPM for the rougher stuff and the Higher OPM for the light stuff. Each sander has a different way of holding paper. The ones based entirely on spring clamping seem to slip. I put a shim in there (a small piece of wood) and it helped me greatly.

[Lew Hodgett]

B&D = POS.

A 6" Bosch ROS at about $150 US will make a lot of your problems go away.

At least it did for me.

HTH

[Mike G]

Yes it is you.

You start with what ever grit does the job the fastest. You use that grit to remove ALL flaws and milling marks. You then step through the grits IE, 80,

100, 120, 150, 180, 220.

Each grit after the original is ONLY to remove the marks from the previous grit. You continuer through the grits until you can no longer see and sanding marks. Usually 220 more then enough. I stop at 180 and I know woodworkers who are happy with 150.

If you skip grits you have to sand five times as much to get the previous grits marks out, IE, 80 grit then 150 grit, and, you burn out sanders..

[Steve Turner]

Listen to this man, he speaks with great wisdom about how to wield sandpaper like any other fine tool. I've produced many a fine finish myself in the last

25 years or so using exactly the same approach. Don't skip grits; you'll work much harder to get poorer results.

Which gets me thinking how badly I really need 6 or 8 brand new (*) ROS sanders, one for each grit, with a nice sticker on top of each one that says "80", "100", "120", etc. :-) Those of you who are already running such an arrangement can just keep your gloat to yourself; you already know you suck! :-)

(*) > Yes it is you.

[CW]

Planes and scrapers will eliminate most sanding.

[Silvan]

Me three. I'm learning this lesson trying my hand at Scary Sharp(tm). Same principle. Not skipping grits makes a TREMENDOUS difference in how quickly I can get the results I'm after.

I'm a believer.