Sanding

[Garno]

Please be gentle and remember I'm new to all of this wood working malarkey. (homer)

I've spent the last few hours sanding down some wood that I have glued together.
To do this task I have been using a 55W hand held sander from Black and Decker.

Never having used one before I have noticed that I seem to be going through an awful lot of sanding pads, which brings me to my question.
Do I need to be applying a lot of down force pressure when sanding? Or do I just sort of rest the sander on top and let it do the work? Also do I need to follow the grain at all times?

There are some of us out there who have no clue yet still find it enjoyable

 

[MikeG.]

I'm afraid that if you are trying to smooth out some boards you have glued together that you may be using the wrong tool. If I sand something down like that (I'd prefer to plane it) I would use a belt sander across the grain first to flatten everything. Then with the grain, and then work with finer and finer abrasives. I suspect you may be using an orbital sander, which just vibrates. It's job isn't removal of material so much as polishing. You may have attempted the woodworking equivalent of trying to cut your lawn with a pair of nail scissors.

 

[MattRoberts]

What type of sander is it? Random orbital (round) or sheet (rectangular)? What grit are you using? Are you using dust extraction? What type of wood is it?

All of these have a factor in clogging up the paper meaning it's less efficient and you have to change pads more often

 

[Garno]

What type of sander is it? Random orbital (round) or sheet (rectangular)? What grit are you using? Are you using dust extraction? What type of wood is it?

All of these have a factor in clogging up the paper meaning it's less efficient and you have to change pads more often

The pads are Velcro backed and triangular, The wood is boarding from the local builders merchants and came in 8" widths. I have halved one piece and glued to another to make them into 12". No dust extraction but I do wear a mask.
They are to be used for a tool chest, 32" wide x 16" deep x 12" high. I will be putting my hand held power tools in the bottom and have my normal tools in the upper part, I thought I had it all worked out until I started it, oh I almost forgot, I will be trying to make it look antique, have already ordered the white vinegar.

Gary

 

[MattRoberts]

Ok, the triangular sanders are detail sanders, primarily used to give items a light to medium sanding and very in various nooks and crannies (hence the pointy end).

What you're trying to do is remove material over a larger area in order to flatten - this is best achieved with a random orbital sander or a belt sander, but usually a mixture of the two.

You can do it with the detail sander, but as you're finding, you're much more likely to go through a lot of sheets and get a less flat surface at the end of it.

The other thing you can do is make sure you're going through the grits correctly : starting low (60 / 80) to get things roughly flat and then slowly increasing to the desired smoothness (up to about 180 maybe?)

Don't press down too hard or you'll increase clogging, let the sander do the work (although this applies much more to ROS / belt sanders than detail sanders).

Sanding against the grain will help remove material faster, and then gradually move towards sanding with the grain

 

[Garno]

Many thanks for taking the time to reply Matt.

Gary

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Do yourself a favour - stanley-no4-1-2-smoother-t108962.html

 

[ED65]

Well worth getting into planes and planing but there is 'a bit' of a learning curve so possibly not the best plan to dive into that for this project, you'd want to practice on scraps for a while to gain some skill and confidence.

For now, I'd at least suggest you go and get an inexpensive set of card scrapers. Scrapers can take the place of sanding nearly entirely, spanning the gap from 80 grit to 240 grit if you need them to, making them incredibly good value.

 

[Geoff_S]

If possible, use a sander with dust extraction. They have the sandpaper with holes either sold that way, or a sander with a hole punch template to make the holes.

The dust extraction not only keeps you breathing properly but also helps to keep the sandpaper unclogged. (Unclogged? - is that a word?) Anyway, I know what I mean.

 

[sunnybob]

I made my own giant sanding block about 12" x4". I buy 4" wide sanding belt by the metre and cut pieces off for the sanding block.
Start with 60 grit, then down to 100, then 180, and finally 240. Always go with the grain. cross grain sanding will take you twice as long to get rid of the scratches.
I never did work out how to use a hand plane successfully.
I only use power sanders for odd shapes where the sanding block wont work.
If you are going to do a lot of long flat plank work then get whats known as a lunchbox planer. That will save you hours and hours.

 

[Garno]

Well worth getting into planes and planing but there is 'a bit' of a learning curve so possibly not the best plan to dive into that for this project, you'd want to practice on scraps for a while to gain some skill and confidence.

For now, I'd at least suggest you go and get an inexpensive set of card scrapers. Scrapers can take the place of sanding nearly entirely, spanning the gap from 80 grit to 240 grit if you need them to, making them incredibly good value.

Thank you ED65,
Up until this moment I had never heard of card scrapers let alone know what they do.
Google is our friend and I will be ordering a set very soon.

Gary

 

[Garno]

I made my own giant sanding block about 12" x4". I buy 4" wide sanding belt by the metre and cut pieces off for the sanding block.
Start with 60 grit, then down to 100, then 180, and finally 240. Always go with the grain. cross grain sanding will take you twice as long to get rid of the scratches.
I never did work out how to use a hand plane successfully.
I only use power sanders for odd shapes where the sanding block wont work.
If you are going to do a lot of long flat plank work then get whats known as a lunchbox planer. That will save you hours and hours.

Thank you Bob.

The problem I would face making one that big is workshop space.
My mini man cave really is mini, only 54" x 78"

I currently do my sanding on top of a tabletop router I have screwed down on a shelf.
Probably not the best setting for it but certainly a challenging one.

God loves a trier,

Gary

 

[Mr T]

Well worth getting into planes and planing but there is 'a bit' of a learning curve so possibly not the best plan to dive into that for this project, you'd want to practice on scraps for a while to gain some skill and confidence.

For now, I'd at least suggest you go and get an inexpensive set of card scrapers. Scrapers can take the place of sanding nearly entirely, spanning the gap from 80 grit to 240 grit if you need them to, making them incredibly good value.

Thank you ED65,
Up until this moment I had never heard of card scrapers let alone know what they do.
Google is our friend and I will be ordering a set very soon.

Gary

I would warn that there is a knack to sharpening and using card scrapers. I think it may be easier to plane it flat, if you can get the plane sharp enough, then sand. Sorry if you are getting conflicting advice.

Chris

 

[thick_mike]

Yes, if you are getting a card scraper, you should probably get a burnished too. They can be tricky to put an edge on.

 

[hawkeyefxr]

When i made my Oak table i used a belt sander followed by a random orbit sander. The one thing i would say is let the belt, sanding pads do the work, don't push on the tools.

 

[Mr T]

Yes, if you are getting a card scraper, you should probably get a burnished too. They can be tricky to put an edge on.

You can use a good screw driver shaft to turn the edge. But as I said there is a knack to both sharpening and use of card scrapers.

Chris

 

[thick_mike]

Yes, if you are getting a card scraper, you should probably get a burnished too. They can be tricky to put an edge on.

You can use a good screw driver shaft to turn the edge. But as I said there is a knack to both sharpening and use of card scrapers.

Chris

I tried screwdrivers with varying success, but it became much easier when I bought a burnisher. Maybe my screwdrivers aren’t quite hard enough, or maybe my technique improved in the meantime.

 

[ED65]

There's a great deal of advice out there covering how scrapers should be prepared the conventional or traditional way, less about how they can be prepared if you don't need them to be quite that refined.

Scrapers that don't have to work at the high end don't have to be prepped the conventional way. Instead of filing/draw filing the edge dead square, honing off the burr this creates and then creating new burrs by burnishing you can accept the burr from filing (or stoning). Makes prepping a card scraper a perfect-first-time proposition, and it takes all of 10 seconds Admittedly once you get good at doing it the traditional way you can do the whole job in a couple of minutes without rushing, but it's nice to be able to tell beginners that they can get something they can use in under 30 seconds.

 

[Ttrees]

Here is a wee tute on makin your own scraper and sharpening it
make-yer-own-cabinet-card-scraper-the-cheapest-way-t103164.html

Tom