Sanding - what grades?

[MorrisWoodman12]

+1 for cabinet scrapers

 

[Adam W.]

Dead right, The glassy smooth finish from a sharp plane is all you need, what you get with sandpaper is scratches.
I have made bespoke furniture for years and I hardly use any abrasives at all. Ian

Agreed, sanding just makes for a load of extra work and sanding dust is really grim.

After planing I also like to give the piece a brisk burnish with the shavings to give a beautiful shiny finish.

 

[Droogs]

Agreed, sanding just makes for a load of extra work and sanding dust is really grim.

After planing I also like to give the piece a brisk burnish with the shavings to give a beautiful shiny finish.

You should film that with a warm filter in slow mow while only wearing a soft leather apron and send it in as an audition for the 2nd seaon of Britain's Best woodworker.

 

[Adam W.]

You should film that with a warm filter in slow mow while only wearing a soft leather apron and send it in as an audition for the 2nd seaon of Britain's Best woodworker.

I think I'll stop posting on this forum.

 

[julianf]

Re scrapers, planes etc.

The parts are small, too small for planning, and, possibly, although i have no experience of it, too small for scraping.

So, whilst I appreciate the advice, its not what I was asking, and suspect (although no-one else was to know!) that its inapplicable my situation.

Re: paper

Ive just bought a box of autonet (which is said to be the same as arbanet, just less flexible, which is fine for me) at 120. I guess ill buy another box at 180 when ive managed to mentally adjust to spending £50 on sandpaper...

Thanks to all.

 

[Jacob]

Cheaper quality can be bad news in that there may be a few bits of grit in there coarser than the spec. - enough to leave a few deeper scratches. So removing scratches from cheapo 100 grit may be near impossible with 120 and you have to go back a grade, or start again with good quality 100.

 

[Tenacity]

Another +1 for scrapers have got some great results with the most pain in the backside hardwoods.

 

[Ollie78]

Re scrapers, planes etc.

The parts are small, too small for planning, and, possibly, although i have no experience of it, too small for scraping.

So, whilst I appreciate the advice, its not what I was asking, and suspect (although no-one else was to know!) that its inapplicable my situation.

Re: paper

Ive just bought a box of autonet (which is said to be the same as abranet, just less flexible, which is fine for me) at 120. I guess ill buy another box at 180 when ive managed to mentally adjust to spending £50 on sandpaper...

Thanks to all.

Oh, I suggested scrapers because you said you were using a drum sander which made me think you were using large ish boards.
I suspect the autonet will be fine, try Morrells for the abranet next time, they have their own brand (still actually Mirka) and I certainly don`t pay £50 a box for it.
Kind of interested to know what you are making now?

Ollie

 

[Droogs]

Re scrapers, planes etc.

The parts are small, too small for planning, and, possibly, although i have no experience of it, too small for scraping.

So, whilst I appreciate the advice, its not what I was asking, and suspect (although no-one else was to know!) that its inapplicable my situation.

Re: paper

Ive just bought a box of autonet (which is said to be the same as arbanet, just less flexible, which is fine for me) at 120. I guess ill buy another box at 180 when ive managed to mentally adjust to spending £50 on sandpaper...

Thanks to all.

Abranet and Autonet are definitely not the same. I use both, Abranet for material removal on wood as the particulates that are on the mesh are chosen to specifically break away leaving a new sharp edge as they wear allowing you to get a consistent sharp edge giving an even level of material removal. Autonet is designed with abrasives that wear gradually and do not crumble/break as they wear to allow a more even reduction in the visibility of scratches on the surface of the finish. Autonet is designed specifically for use on body filler/paint finishes.

 

[baldkev]

while only wearing a soft leather apron

Make sure the camera is in front of you.... if you are only wearing a leather apron, we dont want to see hairy ar5e

 

[baldkev]

Oh yep, as above, what is the eventual finish? I.e oil? The reason you see grit finish limits is that if you go too fine, the finish cannot properly soak in to anything. Im pretty sure sadolin ckearcoat is 120g max. Also, not wishing to teach you to suck eggs, its important to sand with the grain. If you have a way to clamp or hold these small pieces, you could do a test using a sharp chisel as a scraper. Hold it at about 90° to the workpiece and using a bit of downward pressure, pull the chisel towards you ( with the grain orientated inline ). See what you think.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You should film that with a warm filter in slow mow while only wearing a soft leather apron and send it in as an audition for the 2nd seaon of Britain's Best woodworker.

He could borrow Jay's. He doesn't need it.

 

[julianf]

Abranet and Autonet are definitely not the same. I use both, Abranet for material removal on wood as the particulates that are on the mesh are chosen to specifically break away leaving a new sharp edge as they wear allowing you to get a consistent sharp edge giving an even level of material removal. Autonet is designed with abrasives that wear gradually and do not crumble/break as they wear to allow a more even reduction in the visibility of scratches on the surface of the finish. Autonet is designed specifically for use on body filler/paint finishes.

I dont know - all i did is read a review where someone tried them both on wood, side by side, and couldnt tell the difference. So, i figured, if there was a difference, it was fairly minor, and probably not worth the extra 25% price loading on arbanet - to me at least.

 

[julianf]

Oh, I suggested scrapers because you said you were using a drum sander which made me think you were using large ish boards.
I suspect the autonet will be fine, try Morrells for the abranet next time, they have their own brand (still actually Mirka) and I certainly don`t pay £50 a box for it.
Kind of interested to know what you are making now?

Ollie

I posted these same photos in another thread a while back, but this kind of stuff, and smaller.

The drum sander is because the inner faces need to be entirely flat, and the type and shape of the wood is a pig for movement. So i rough cut the parts, leave them a fair while, then template route them, leave them a while, and then finish up on the drum sander to take out any final movement.

So the last bit of the process is on the, otherwise, finished parts.

I mean, maybe someone with more skill than myself could scrape them, but for me, whacking it with the ROS seems to be the easy option.

 

[Ollie78]

The drum sander is because the inner faces need to be entirely flat, and the type and shape of the wood is a pig for movement. So i rough cut the parts, leave them a fair while, then template route them, leave them a while, and then finish up on the drum sander to take out any final movement.

So the last bit of the process is on the, otherwise, finished parts.

I mean, maybe someone with more skill than myself could scrape them, but for me, whacking it with the ROS seems to be the easy option.

I am none the wiser as to what that is but I like the way the folding mechanism works its an elegant solution and nicely made.

Your method sounds pretty sensible in general. I think you may be overestimating the skill needed to use a card scraper, when really sharp you just need to pass it over the surface at the right angle. I guess you need to know how to sharpen them properly but they are simple to use.
For parts like in your picture I would probably still scrape the faces and long grain edges then just sand the end grain and corners.

Do you use black epoxy to fill the splits or the hot melt thing from Boegh consult ?

Ollie

 

[julianf]

It's slow setting epoxy. I can't really believe that some people use hot melt glue, but each to their own.

 

[martin.pearson]

As they have a fair bit of give in them(relatively speaking) compared to paper belts, they work best at finishing on a belt sander rather than as a thicknesser on a belt sander. I use mesh on all my hand held stuff but paper belts on the big drum sander, especially if using it to get the last couple of x/y mm off a large panel etc.

I don't use my Drum sander for thicknessing but if they don't work any better than the paper belts then I will stick to what I am already using thanks for replying, I've been using abranet on the orbital sander & I have a couple of the abranet hand held blocks you can hook up to a vacuum

 

[martin.pearson]

Parts come off the drum sander, which im abusing a little as a thicknesser, to take out any final movement in the parts. So i have 100 grit loaded up in that.

How many parts are you doing at a time? Just wondering if it would be worth you changing the roll in the drum sander to a finer grit, I do this sometimes when I have a batch of the same thing to make but obviously if it's only one or two items at a time it's probably not going to save you any time.

 

[Ollie78]

It's slow setting epoxy. I can't really believe that some people use hot melt glue, but each to their own.

Well, I actually have one of the Boegh consult machines which is why I was wondering if you used it for this application.
It is actually pretty good for specific use cases partly due to the very quick drying time. I use it for non structural repairs to old windows and stuff and its great for knots or little fills in joinery that is going to be painted. The issue is you have to make sure not to get the repair hot or it melts again, so no belt sanding !

Ollie

 

[julianf]

Parts come off the drum sander, which im abusing a little as a thicknesser, to take out any final movement in the parts. So i have 100 grit loaded up in that.

How many parts are you doing at a time? Just wondering if it would be worth you changing the roll in the drum sander to a finer grit, I do this sometimes when I have a batch of the same thing to make but obviously if it's only one or two items at a time it's probably not going to save you any time.

I was thinking of that, as, well, i have a drum sander, and thats what its meant for....

I dont know the numbers. Maybe batches of 20 parts or so? So, yes, probably worth the effort of changing the paper.

Currently i have the back roller out of play (its a dual drum) so maybe setting that up right would work, but i think it would probably be quicker just to change the paper on the single drum.

The drum sander is brutal. Its one of the big floor standing ones. 16a supply. If im talking about changing the paper on that, the next line would be what paper to use on that....

I mention the fierceness of the machine as i reckon skipping a few grades and running it through a few times at the finer grade would probably be just as good as changing the paper multiple times?