Sanding & finishing

[Rob Miller]

I was just trying to finish a small vessel made of three pieces of dry wood scraps. I had a devil of a time getting it sanded. I'm not sure if it was because of minor tear-out due to a dull chisel or what, but I couldn't get some areas smooth no matter what I did. I even backed all the way out to 24 grit paper and went back down through the grits and I still had some rough areas. Should I have been using sanding sealer? Would this have alleviated that problem?

[Michelle Rich]

no, sanding sealer won't help something that needs 24 grit to start. You don't give us enuf info..what kind of wood? in what orientation? Sharpen your tools, it ALWAYS helps. Keep at it, it becomes easier with practice.

[Garth Sheane]

Rob,
I went to power sanding a couple of years ago. I got a right angle inexpensive drill and bought two different size pads ... one 3" and one 1.5" (approx). Sanding discs come in 80 grit through 400. It is very dusty so I've concocted an attachment to my dust collector which is held by magnets to the lathe bed to pull away most of the dust. Sanding goes much faster and does a better job, I think. I run the lathe at about 120 rpm while sanding.

By the way, what speed do you run at when you are sanding by hand?

[Rob Miller]

Rob,
I went to power sanding a couple of years ago. I got a right angle inexpensive drill and bought two different size pads ... one 3" and one 1.5" (approx). Sanding discs come in 80 grit through 400. It is very dusty so I've concocted an attachment to my dust collector which is held by magnets to the lathe bed to pull away most of the dust. Sanding goes much faster and does a better job, I think. I run the lathe at about 120 rpm while sanding.

By the way, what speed do you run at when you are sanding by hand?

I'm not sure what the speed is, to be honest. It's an old Craftsman belt driven lathe and I've been using it on the second slowest set of pulleys. I'm sure it's faster than I should be sanding. It's funny -- I already bought the two sizes of pads you mentioned but haven't used them yet. I also found a used Jet DC1200 collector last week but I need to put in another 220v outlet before I can implement it.