"ississauga" wrote in message
om...
As a contractor I did my first drywall taping job today and ate lots
of dust while sanding. Have you tried non sanding techniques and what
were good/bad things about them?

One person said he uses a wet hand towel.


http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...%40comcast.com


In my experience, drysanding with paper or screens attached to a firm10"
sanding block will level the "ripples" left by recurve trowels and tiring
arms better than wet techniques. The sanding block will also reduce ridges
without depressing the area around them as much as rags or wet foam sanding
blocks.
On repair sized jobs, an additional thin (4th) coat of compound will blend
said ridges and taper/butt intersections nicely. Wet sanding follows that
up well.
IMO, wetsanding is warranted when the time invested in a more careful taping
job is offset by the potential cleanup time. Using a vac-assisted sanding
block has lowered that bar for me.

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 14:51:57 GMT, 'nuther Bob
wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 07:24:09 -0400, "Eric Ryder"
wrote:



In my experience,

Good advice so far, my short course:

- Use *thin* coats.
- 3-6" trowel for coat #1 and 2, 6-12" for coat #2, 12" for coat #3.
- Don't overwork it. Apply, smooth, let it go.
- Use the trowel to scrap off any high ridges between coats.
Don't sand between coats.

If you need a "final" sand, use a RO sander with 150 grit attached
to a shop vac. Put a hose in the exhaust port, run it out a window.
Done this way, there's no dust.

I use a hand sander designed to be used on the end of a shop vac hose.
It has holes in it so that all dust is sucked throught the screen and
with a proper filter in the shop vac, none gets through. No exhaust
hose required. It eliminates dust so well that no mask or sealing off
rooms is required.

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 03:09:27 GMT, Art Todesco
wrote:

HD sells a unit that you put water into a drop-off tank. You
hook it up to any vacuum. The dust drops off in the water.
This is good for your vacuum as the fine dust really gets into
every corner of the vacuum and also plugs the filters pretty
fast. I have also used a small blower to suck the dust from the
sanding block and push it outside the house. Also, the dust
really doesn't do the bearings any good either.

With a high-efficiency filter, the dust does not reach the bearings,
but yes the filter does need to cleaned once in a while. My vacuum
does not have corners where dust collects.

Alan wrote:
On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 14:51:57 GMT, 'nuther Bob
wrote:


On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 07:24:09 -0400, "Eric Ryder"
wrote:



In my experience,

Good advice so far, my short course:

- Use *thin* coats.
- 3-6" trowel for coat #1 and 2, 6-12" for coat #2, 12" for coat #3.
- Don't overwork it. Apply, smooth, let it go.
- Use the trowel to scrap off any high ridges between coats.
Don't sand between coats.

If you need a "final" sand, use a RO sander with 150 grit attached
to a shop vac. Put a hose in the exhaust port, run it out a window.
Done this way, there's no dust.


I use a hand sander designed to be used on the end of a shop vac hose.
It has holes in it so that all dust is sucked throught the screen and
with a proper filter in the shop vac, none gets through. No exhaust
hose required. It eliminates dust so well that no mask or sealing off
rooms is required.