plywood sanding schedule

[Jay Goddard]

What is your normal sanding schedule for stain grade plywood? Do you start at 150, 180, 220? Do you drop a grit for the back side?

Jay

[Ron Meadows]

I may be a bit odd in the schedule that I follow, but here goes anyway. I start with 100, go to 120, then 150. If I'm finishing with solvent based material I stop there, if water based I go from 150 to 220 and then stop.

Probably not the most correct way, but I get smooth sprayed finishes.


Ron

[Todd Burch]

Call me lazy, but I put a lot less effort into it.

My take is that plywood comes sanded already. I will always random orbit sand with 220, unless there are mars or discolorations from handling, then I will use either 150 or 180 first. (I'm refering to quality ply here - not when trying to make something non-quality look good.)

On a really important piece, I will wet the grain, let it dry, and sand with 220 again.

The top coat finishing schedule that I follow (3 coats of sprayed lacquer) allows a degree of "looseness" when it comes to sanding. The first coat is the sealer coat, and it gets sanded with 220 fre-cut paper, by hand. After that, the only thing that can go wrong is dust nibs and operator errors.

If I'm not staining, sanding can go real fast. If I skimp too much on sanding when I do stain, the stain rag with catch in the fibers and cause a headache with lint. The first coat of lacquer finds these real quick though!

[Jim Baker]

I normally use 150 and 220 unless there is a damaged spot or a particularly rough back that needs to be touched up.

[Howard Acheson]

Hardwood plywood is normally factory sanded to 180 grit so it is best not to then sand with anything lower. With today's very thin hardwood veneers, sanding should be done very carefully. In most cases all I do is hand sand with 180 grit in the direction of the grain. I rarely even consider using my pad sander and don't think I would ever use a ROS. It's just too easy to sand throught the veneer.

Better to minimize sanding until you have the equivilent of one full brushed on coat of finish. Let this fully dry, then sand to flatten and smooth using 320 paper. Now you have the best surface for further coating.

[Phil Phelps]

Hardwood plywood is normally factory sanded to 180 grit so it is best not to then sand with anything lower. With today's very thin hardwood veneers, sanding should be done very carefully. In most cases all I do is hand sand with 180 grit in the direction of the grain. I rarely even consider using my pad sander and don't think I would ever use a ROS. It's just too easy to sand throught the veneer.

Better to minimize sanding until you have the equivilent of one full brushed on coat of finish. Let this fully dry, then sand to flatten and smooth using 320 paper. Now you have the best surface for further coating.

.... but there ain't nothin to add..... :rolleyes: