Sanding problem

[Robert Kingsley]

I am making a nut cracker bowl in CEDAR I glued 5 peices of 2x4x5 cedar and made a nut cracker bowl sanding the bowl is now becoming a major problem I have ir sanded to a 400 grit but the lines of the previous grits still a
show even if I sand more the line do not seem to disapear. Does any one have an answer to correct this? should I sand with a sanding compound? if so where would I get it.

[Bill Hensley]

Robert you may be sanding too hard. Go back down in the grits and work your way back up to 400. Turn the lathe on low speed ~200 rpm or so and keep moving your sandpaper. Don't leave it rubbing in one spot for too long.

[Prashun Patel]

When that happens, the first thing is to back down to coarser and coarser grits until the lines disappear (and are replaced by finer lines from the current grit).

Are you sanding with the lathe on or off?

[Robert Kingsley]

Bill Thanks for the advise I think now that I was pushing pretty hard on the paper I will try what you suggested Thanks again

[Robert Kingsley]

I am sanding with the lathe on at a low speed on my Midi Lathe I do not have reverse so only sand turning on direction

[Reed Gray]

Part of the problem could be your lighting. Mostly in that you do not see that you have not sanded out all the scratch marks from the previous grit before moving up to the next grit. Cedar is also difficult to sand because it is so soft. For reverse sanding, you can spin with one hand and hold the abrasives with the other. You only have to go round a couple of times. I do wipe the bowl out with my hand between sandings at the higher grits, 220 and above. The fine dust particles will fill in the scratch marks and high light them. Oh, besides good lighting, you need good glasses if your vision is getting dusty as well.

robo hippy

[David DeCristoforo]

Another tip. After you sand with a particular grit, stop the lathe and sand with the next finest grit using a "tight" circular motion. Any scratches from the coarser grit will immediately become visible, even in less than perfect light. Another mistake that gets made (and not just by turners) is to use sandpaper past it's actual useful life. You might think it is still "good" because you can still feel some "tooth" on it but it's really dull and worn out. Worn out sandpaper will not cut, but it will still make dust, fooling you into thinking that you are sanding when you are really doing little more than rubbing.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Are you using "good" sandpaper? I found that the cheapo paper from the x-mart stores have really sketchy quality control. It seemed to me they had a 30 grit rocks on my 100 grit paper, and no matter what I did, I had those lines that nothing would erase.... The higher cost 3M and Norton paper is OK. There are several high quality sandpaper sites around the internet. Sandpaper is a tool, avoid cheap paper. Well, for ME, sandpaper is a tool. :o

[willis martin]

Robert,Iwork with cedar quite often and I sometimes use an orbital sander with pretty good results.Just go through the grits never skipping any and you'll be surprised good luck, Willis

[Jamie Donaldson]

Avoid diffused lighting such as fluorescents above the lathe as a primary light source. Even a temporary incandescent fixture shining along the axis of the lathe will save much extra sanding, because the side light shadows make scratchs look like trenches!

[Bernie Weishapl]

I will add that cedar is a soft wood and if you get heavy handed with it with the sandpaper you definitely will have problems. I agree with Bill to use light pressure and slow your lathe down especially when you get to the higher grits from 320 and up.

[Thomas Canfield]

On some aromatic red cedar, I used a thin shellac as a sanding sealer to harden the wood and get a better sanded surface. It seems that the soft wood needed a little stiffening to get proper sanding. You final finish may tell you how to sand, that is starting you finish at a lower grit and then sanding the finish with finer grit in stages to you final finish.