Sanding Question

[James Ayars]

I'm sanding a wooden bed frame my brother in law made for our 2 year old. Should I go higher than 220 grit on the RO sander or palm sander? I'm thinking of using shellac for the finish. Any suggestions on this?

Also, do any of you mail order sanding disks? Many thanks.

To those that recommended the PC 333 RO sander, a big "Thank you". I've had mine about a week and love it.
James

[Joe Chritz]

What kind of wood are you using?

I normally stop at 180 for oak (red or white) and go to 220 for maple and hickory.

I order from klingspor for disks and paper. Good paper, decent costs but it took almost 2 weeks to come in last order. Lots of people like Mirca paper which is supposed to be very good also,

Once my local stores stopped carrying norton paper in 25 packs I started ordering all my disks.

Joe

[Jesse Cloud]

No need to go beyond 220 before applying a finish.

Shellac is one of my favorite finishes. Suggest you go for the Zinnser pre-mix unless you plan on doing a lot of shellac finishing.

And one of the cool things about shellac is that each coat dissolves into the previous one, so there is no need to sand between coats unless you really screw up.:rolleyes:

Post a pic when its done!

By the way, I order from Klingspor regularly. Also watch Amazon for specials.

Happy woodworking!
Jess

[Frank Pellow]

220 is the highest grit sandpaper that I own. For the kind of work that I do, it certainly seems good enough. :D In fact, it seems better than good enough. :)

[Steve Schoene]

220 is fully fine enough under a film finish. I always do a light sanding by hand, with the same as the last grit on the ROS, just in case I got eager to finish and left an orbit or two. This is more important to do if you are using one of the darker shellacs, and especially if you expect to use a pigmented stain.