Sanding green wood?

[Dan Forman]

I'm about to turn still green wood to final thickness on a hollow form. Its pretty damp yet, how do you go about sanding such a piece? I assume by the time it's dry enough to sand, it will be warped enough to make it difficult to do on the lathe. What is the best strategy for this? Thanks.

Dan

[Allen stagg]

I sand as normal but don't make much of a difference. The grain will raise as it dries somewhat. I just hand sand or even better yet, I have some sanding mops that work just great. It spins on the lathe and you place the wood against the sanding mop. I love mine. Can see it in action here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-l_IOJdY1c&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL . It works great once the wood is dry and is fast and makes a smooth sand. Can get them in multiple grits. They can be purchased in multiple places, just google sanding mop. Don't remember where I bought mine, but it is a 2" X 6" mop kit and can get refills as needed. I have 3 different grits always ready and use a drill chuck on the lathe for sanding. Works great on molding or other stuff also for flat work.

[David E Keller]

I like to wet sand green pieces if I'm turning to final thickness. The water keeps the paper from gumming up, and gives a pretty good finish on some woods. You can always touch it up by hand once it's dry before applying a finish.

[Tim Thiebaut]

That sanding mop looks like a pretty nice tool to have, I may have to check into that myself, thanks for posting that.

[Jon McElwain]

If you were Jimmy Clewes you would use a squirt bottle to mist some alcohol onto the piece and light it on fire. The alcohol raises the grain and the fire dries the surface of the wood. He only sprays a little - not enough to ignite the wood itself. Anyway, if your burn your shop down doing this, you didn't hear it from me!!:eek:

I have not tried the fire method, but I have sanded the surface of a still wet piece with regular sand paper and a foam rubber block. I have turned up the RPMs really high to sort of centrifuge water from the piece, then use a hair dryer to dry the surface and sand again. As others have said, as the piece dries, you will likely get some raised grain, but a quick shot of your finish sandpaper grit applied by hand off the lathe should take care of most of that. Also, make sure to sand in both forward and reverse while the piece is on the lathe. This will help a little in minimizing the raised grain as the piece dries out.

[Jim Adkins]

I have used Abranet for sanding green, wet wood. It works great because of the open mesh that allows discharge of the sanding dust. I use a random orbital sander with the 6" disc, they come in all the common grits....100 thru 600 and last a very long time. If they bocome clogged I let them dry then use an air hose to clear the dust out.

[Prashun Patel]

I assume by the time it's dry enough to sand, it will be warped enough to make it difficult to do on the lathe.
Dan

That's not necessarily true. I did a couple green finished turnings, and had good luck leaving the piece on the lathe for an hour before sanding. It dried out a little but didn't move too much on me.

[Reed Gray]

It depends on the wood. If there is any figure or 'reaction' wood like around knots, the surface will get really 3 dimensional. The nice thing about end grain turnings is that they are a lot easier to get surfaces free from tear out. Light sanding with some oil and 220 on up isn't too difficult. When dry, apply more finish and buff it in with the synthetic steel wool. If the piece is all pretty straight grained, then it is easy to sand out when dry, but you need really slow lathe speeds for sanding which most lathes won't do (10 to 20 rpm) unless you can reprogram the phase converter box.

robo hippy

robo hippy

[Harry Robinette]

I've been turning green wood to finish for about 11 years now.You just sand like normal but use a paper bag in between the sand paper.The bag's paper and friction drys the wood and lets you sand your next grit.Use a pad under the bag cause it gets hot quick.I also use an inertia sander the same way bag then the sander works great and bags are free just cut to any size.The piece still warps but I don't think it warps as bad cause your drying it a little at a time JMHO.
Harry