What would you use to sand baltic birch plywood

[Ricardo Capelli]

What would you recommend to use for sanding baltic birch plywood.

I place my first order of the plywood and notice it needs sanding. So, before buying a machine, I figured to ask first.

I want a serious machine that can handle production, not a hand held one.

Thanks.

Rick

[Anthony Welch]

When/if I ever get to a production status, this is what a couple of folks have suggested http://www.amazon.com/629004K-16-Inch-2-Horsepower-Sander-110-Volt/dp/B00005RW92/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290228124&sr=8-1

[Lee DeRaud]

I place my first order of the plywood and notice it needs sanding.I'd be seriously tempted to change suppliers, given that 99% of the BB ply I've ever seen was "finish-ready".

That said, there's a trick I saw on 'This Old House' awhile back: spray a coat of lacquer (which has the added benefit of sealing the surface) and then do a single quick pass with a cabinet scraper. Note that they were prepping plywood for building kitchen cabinets; if you need a surface better than that, I doubt the drum sanders being suggested are going to do the job.

[john passek]

I saw a neat little machine on tv the other day called a sand flee, might work for you.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

If you are talking about the 3mm birch ply then you have to be real carfull with surface sanders like the one shown. They are designed for stock that thin. What you can do is to make a fixure that holds the stock as it is sent through. IF you are laser cutting it you are going to have to cleand it up a bit any way. When I do it I use as palm sander with 180 grit. Just a couple second is all that is needed

[David Giles]

I spray leftover shellac or lacquer onto full sheets of the BB. After it dries, a quick hit with any high grit sander or scraper takes the fuzz off and leaves a smooth surface. Easier to do a whole sheet at once.

[John Coloccia]

I'd be seriously tempted to change suppliers, given that 99% of the BB ply I've ever seen was "finish-ready".


Yep. Half the point of spending extra on good plywood is that you can cut it, glue it, screw it, nail it, whatever and finish.

[johnny means]

Every production shop I have ever worked in, including mine, sanded plywood with hand held sanders. Plywood is tricky to sand because of varying thicknesses and uber thin veneers. Unless your ready to spend a gagillion dollars on specialized plywood equipment, hand sanding is the only way to go.

[Steve Griffin]

Every production shop I have ever worked in, including mine, sanded plywood with hand held sanders. Plywood is tricky to sand because of varying thicknesses and uber thin veneers. Unless your ready to spend a gagillion dollars on specialized plywood equipment, hand sanding is the only way to go.

Yep, I use 150g on a 6" orbital for plywood destined for interiors. This is done after parts cut to size(why sand the waste pieces...) and done just about as fast as you can cover the visible face with one pass. Takes seconds per cabinet, and is mainly done to remove marrs, footprints and minor scraches.

For plywood products that will be exposed on the outside of cabinets, I do the same, only with more care and with 220 grit.

In any case, it's hardly a measurable time investment and I'd have to be about 50 times bigger operation before bothering to find another method.

Maybe an 8" or bigger orbital would be the next step up from 6"

-Steve

[Larry Rasmussen]

Good morning Rick,

As you saw from initial replies sometimes the hand held machine, in this case the random orbital sander is much faster that the floor machine. How did you do your prototypes? What surface area needs sanding on how thick of plywood? As others said Baltic Birch should be ready to go with just a touch of sanding.

Good luck,
Larry Rasmussen
Seattle

[Randy Walker]

HI Rick
I just did 8 sheets of 5’x5’ Baltic Birch in my shop with a 5” random orbit sander, and 220 sand paper in less than 30 minutes. I don’t think any floor machine will be able to beat that time, or the quality of finish the random orbit sander will gives. An additional benefit of using the “ro” sander is that you get a moment to really look at the wood for small defects that might impact your product.
If you are buying stock already cut to size for your machine you will spend even less time, but you may want to do the sanding outside or use a vacuum attachment because it does create some sanding dust.
One last thought. A quick coat of lacquer, or shellac gives the plywood a nice sheen and helps keep colors from bleeding onto each other

Randy Walker

[Dave Zellers]

HI Rick
An additional benefit of using the “ro” sander is that you get a moment to really look at the wood for small defects that might impact your product.

Excellent point!

Getting up close and personal with the materials is a big part of any project.