Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

I have an awful lot of small parts to sand. It occurs to me now that I
could even have sanded the stock before cutting it into a million (OK
32) 1x2x9" pieces, but I didn't. Then again I might have scratched it up
afterward during the rest of the operations.

Water under the bridge in any case.

This is all red oak from Lowe's. I sifted through just about all of the
1x2 and 1x3 they had and picked the straightest, least twisted, fewest
flaws, straightest grain. It feels pretty smooth, frankly. Given that,
what grit would you start with? If I need to do several steps that's
what I'll do, but if I'm wasting my time with coarser grits, I'd love to
know beforehand.

Any tips for sanding lots of small parts (no, no belt or drum sander
here) would be appreciated as well. I'm thinking of making a little
3-sided (maybe even 4-sided) "corral" of 1/2" ply with an open area
exactly the width of the pieces and a stop at one (maybe both) end(s).
That way I can drop in a piece, sand it, flip it over, sand it, and move
on to the next piece. I'd either have a second corral for sanding the
edges, or see if I could make do with just one.

I have also considered gluing down the sandpaper to a flat surface and
pushing the pieces back and forth on it, but with stock this thin (3/4")
it would be hard to grip it without sanding my fingertips off as well.

These are the kinds of things a weekends-only novice thinks of during
the week, by the way.

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On 5/30/2014 4:11 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

I have an awful lot of small parts to sand. It occurs to me now that I
could even have sanded the stock before cutting it into a million (OK
32) 1x2x9" pieces, but I didn't. Then again I might have scratched it up
afterward during the rest of the operations.

Water under the bridge in any case.

This is all red oak from Lowe's. I sifted through just about all of the
1x2 and 1x3 they had and picked the straightest, least twisted, fewest
flaws, straightest grain. It feels pretty smooth, frankly. Given that,
what grit would you start with? If I need to do several steps that's
what I'll do, but if I'm wasting my time with coarser grits, I'd love to
know beforehand.

If you look very closely at the wood, do you see any ridges where the
planer knives have left scallop marks?

I seldom start any lower than 150, occasionally I start with 120.
I pretty much NEVER go beyond 180 for oak.





Any tips for sanding lots of small parts (no, no belt or drum sander
here) would be appreciated as well. I'm thinking of making a little
3-sided (maybe even 4-sided) "corral" of 1/2" ply with an open area
exactly the width of the pieces and a stop at one (maybe both) end(s).
That way I can drop in a piece, sand it, flip it over, sand it, and move
on to the next piece. I'd either have a second corral for sanding the
edges, or see if I could make do with just one.

I have also considered gluing down the sandpaper to a flat surface and
pushing the pieces back and forth on it, but with stock this thin (3/4")
it would be hard to grip it without sanding my fingertips off as well.

These are the kinds of things a weekends-only novice thinks of during
the week, by the way.

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Greg Guarino wrote in
:

Another beginner question.


*snip*


Any tips for sanding lots of small parts (no, no belt or drum sander
here) would be appreciated as well. I'm thinking of making a little
3-sided (maybe even 4-sided) "corral" of 1/2" ply with an open area
exactly the width of the pieces and a stop at one (maybe both) end(s).
That way I can drop in a piece, sand it, flip it over, sand it, and
move on to the next piece. I'd either have a second corral for sanding
the edges, or see if I could make do with just one.


*snip*

You can drop down a grit size if you find progress is too slow.

Once I had several small pieces (3x6) that needed to be planed to final
thickness. I stuck them on a piece of construction foam with double
sided tape and sent them through the planer. It worked perfectly.

The foam might not work well with hand sanding, but a flat board could be
used instead.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

On 5/30/2014 5:11 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

I have an awful lot of small parts to sand. It occurs to me now that I
could even have sanded the stock before cutting it into a million (OK
32) 1x2x9" pieces, but I didn't. Then again I might have scratched it up
afterward during the rest of the operations.

Water under the bridge in any case.

This is all red oak from Lowe's.

I usually hit it with 125 and then 180 or 220. but 220 does little for oak.

I'd also find a better source for lumber and save a lot of money.

On 5/30/2014 5:36 PM, Leon wrote:
If you look very closely at the wood, do you see any ridges where the
planer knives have left scallop marks?

Yes

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On 5/30/2014 9:47 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
On 5/30/2014 5:36 PM, Leon wrote:
If you look very closely at the wood, do you see any ridges where the
planer knives have left scallop marks?

Yes

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I would start with 120 then and make sure you cannot see those scallops
before going to 150. It should not take too long to get there. And
again 180 is as far as you need to go unless you are going to do some
grain filling and looking for a glass like surface as a result of the
finish you apply.

On 5/30/2014 4:11 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

Caveat: I finish pieces out of necessity and desperation, not out of
love for the process; and I know, and hire, enough "expert finishers" to
quickly realize the fact I'm way below even the worst of them in my
finishing skills.

So the below is how I muddle through the process when forced to.

Obviously the success of my final finish is heavily dependent upon a
minimum of two main factors: preparation and application.

IME, the more attention I pay to the first, the better the results.

I generally start at 100 grit with any wood that may not have been
milled, planed, etc with the sharpest of tools and in a factory setting,
otherwise 120 grit.

On most woods, and particularly red oak, I run through 120, 150, 180
(and maybe not 180 grit, see last below) using a sander; making sure to
either vacuum, dust or blow off the pieces before going to the next grit.

(with a top of the line sander, like a Festool, and attached to a good
dust extractor, this last basically becomes an unnecessary step)

And, I most always do a final and light pass, by hand, with 220 to break
sharp edges, even if I previously stopped at 150 grit.

This last 220 pass is very light and more in the way of a "fondling" and
final, hands-on inspection of the piece by hand, the main idea being to
break sharp edges lightly, partly for imparting a finished "feel" to the
piece, and arguably to mitigate the tendency for some finishes to build
up along sharp edges during application.

I do apply a lot of "Sam Maloof" type, hand rubbed oil/poly finishes and
will often do a final last step with 240, or rarely, 320 grit when
applying this type of finish.

Keeping in mind the entire time that with stained pieces, and some
woods, if you go too high/fine with your grits you may reduce the
ability for your stain/finishes to penetrate, and thereby effect the
color, which may mean more than one application of stain ... this can
become a very dangerous circumstance when the color is everything to the
client, and the application is being done by the colorblind. DAMHIKT.

YMMV ...

--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On 5/31/2014 8:33 AM, Swingman wrote:
On 5/30/2014 4:11 PM, Greg Guarino wrote:
Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

Forgot to mention, particularly if you're staining, that the one place
that you will DEFINITELY want to have higher grits (like 220/240/320,
etc) on hand, and actually use them, will be on the exposed end grain in
your projects.

The end grain, normally being the tubular, crosscut section of the wood
fibers will, in most woods, soak up stain and thereby be darker in the
final product as a result.

One of the ways to mitigate this is to sand, almost burnish, with a
finer grit to decrease the stain absorption on end grain.


--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://www.google.com/+eWoodShop
https://plus.google.com/+KarlCaillouet/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On 5/31/2014 9:47 AM, Swingman wrote:
the one place that you will DEFINITELY want to have higher grits (like
220/240/320, etc) on hand, and actually use them, will be on the exposed
end grain in your projects.

Thanks. On this project at least, there is no exposed end grain.

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On 5/31/2014 9:33 AM, Swingman wrote:

Keeping in mind the entire time that with stained pieces, and some
woods, if you go too high/fine with your grits you may reduce the
ability for your stain/finishes to penetrate, and thereby effect the color,

Good tip. I'll keep that in mind.

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Swingman wrote:


I do apply a lot of "Sam Maloof" type, hand rubbed oil/poly finishes
and will often do a final last step with 240, or rarely, 320 grit when
applying this type of finish.


I just grabbed this paragraph to throw in a sideline comment - not that it
contradicts anything Karl said above. One other thing to be aware of when
using ROS's is that you can assume a grit higher in finish with a ROS. This
is due to the orbital nature of these tools. In other words, if you're
hitting a piece with say 180, the ROS will produce a scratch very near to
220 - if you sand properly. This can become important in not sanding too
fine so as to burnish the wood.

--

-Mike-

Greg Guarino wrote:
Another beginner question.

My exposure to solid lumber has so far been mostly for face frames and
I've just guessed at how much I should sand and with what grits. I'd
always get up as far as 220, usually using three different grits. But I
have often wondered if that was necessary. Maybe.

I have an awful lot of small parts to sand. It occurs to me now that I
could even have sanded the stock before cutting it into a million (OK
32) 1x2x9" pieces, but I didn't. Then again I might have scratched it up
afterward during the rest of the operations.

Water under the bridge in any case.

This is all red oak from Lowe's. I sifted through just about all of the
1x2 and 1x3 they had and picked the straightest, least twisted, fewest
flaws, straightest grain. It feels pretty smooth, frankly. Given that,
what grit would you start with? If I need to do several steps that's
what I'll do, but if I'm wasting my time with coarser grits, I'd love to
know beforehand.

Any tips for sanding lots of small parts (no, no belt or drum sander
here) would be appreciated as well. I'm thinking of making a little
3-sided (maybe even 4-sided) "corral" of 1/2" ply with an open area
exactly the width of the pieces and a stop at one (maybe both) end(s).
That way I can drop in a piece, sand it, flip it over, sand it, and move
on to the next piece. I'd either have a second corral for sanding the
edges, or see if I could make do with just one.

I have also considered gluing down the sandpaper to a flat surface and
pushing the pieces back and forth on it, but with stock this thin (3/4")
it would be hard to grip it without sanding my fingertips off as well.

These are the kinds of things a weekends-only novice thinks of during
the week, by the way.

-

All this talk about grits is making me hungry.


--
 GW Ross 

 If you're going to walk on thin ice, 
 you might as well dance. 

On 5/31/2014 2:19 PM, G. Ross wrote:

All this talk about grits is making me hungry.

Reminds me of a great lyric:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vel5wqOURMo&feature=kp

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