Oil Sanding?

[Roger Bell]

George's platter got me to get around to asking more about oil sanding.

I would like to learn more about this. Let's say you have a piece with lots-o-tearout (never mind how that might have happened......this is not about sharpness or technique) and you start your sanding schedule at say, 80 grit. Where does the oil get introduced in the schedule on the way to say...600 grit? Mineral oil? Walnut oil? Oil of Olay?

Do we add judicious quantities of oil....or glop it on? Do we add the oil once in the schedule....or at every stage of the schedule?

What do we do about the paper loading quickly? I am paying for my own abrasives...so this is relevant.

Can someone give us a primer on the process?

[Mike Vickery]

I am no expert on anything, but I am not ashamed to say I often oil sand.

Personally my favorite is to use about a 1/2 BLO mineral spirits mix. brush on a medium coat (not sopping wet) and sand with 80 grit paper (not expensive hook and loop disks). When the paper gets clogged a wack it a couple times against the lathe to knock the junk loose if needed I switch to a new piece of paper. Wipe with DNA when done then I go through my sanding disk to 220 without oil. I use paper for grits above that and may or may not use oil again. At that point it is more for grain filling.

Primarily I use it to make quick work of tool marks and tear out, but sometimes to fill the grain in open grained woods.

[Ron Fleice]

I pretty well sand all of my turnings with mineral oil
First I brush on a liberal amount of oil but not so much as to fly all over
when I turn the lathe on...then starting with usually 80 grit I sand with a small piece of paper until it is used up I then burnish the piece with shavings...on to the next grit same method right up to 600 or 800 burnishing after each sanding ...works well for me and eliminates dust...
Ron

[Terry Quiram]

Roger

I wet power sand with Watco while the piece is on the lathe. I squirt some oil in the bowl while it is turning (as slow as the lathe will go) and start sanding. As the oil starts to soak in I add more. The intent is to build a slurry of oil and wood dust that will fill the pours. I wipe out the "mess" using cross grain strokes. I do this with slight pressure. You don't want to drag the slurry out of the pours. Let it dry on the lathe and check it the next day to see if you need to go again. I have an old piece of leather that I drape over the ways. I use Vince's blue 320 to wet sand.

Terry

[Dominic Greco]

Roger,
I had a walnut bowl with some serious tear out on the end grain. No matter what I did, it tore out.

So I posted pics on WoodCentral and Russ Fairfield came to my rescue with a solution that I've been using for several years now.

Find some Spar Varnish that has Alkyd Resins as an ingredient. Russ reccomended McClucky's in the red can. I bought some and made sure to get the "clear".

Make a mixture up of 50% varnish and 50% mineral spirits. Wet sand your bowl with this mix. I started at 120 grit and moved up to 600, 1200, and then 2500.

The varnish gets into the end grain and stiffens it up MUCH better than plain mineral oil would (which I was using before I learned this method). The slurry will fill the pores and give you a baby smooth finish. Between grits wipe the bowl down with a rag soaked in mineral spirits. Once your done, allow the bowl to dry for a day or two. Now apply your finish of chioce.

I found that this method works WONDERS on Walnut, Ash, Cherry, and Osage Orange (my favorite wood to use with this finish).

Several months ago at a recent Woodturning club meeting, I had the oppurtunity to have Mark Sifrii critique a couple of pieces of my work. One was a cherry peppermill that received this treatment. He was very pleased with the finish and asked me how I got it so smooth. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased he noticed!:D

If you have any questions about this technique, don't hesitate to ask.

[Mike Vickery]

As a note this probably goes without saying but just in case.

As important as how to wet sand is to realize their are cases when you might not want to.

1. If you are not planning on using an non oil based finish you might not want to wet sand using oil. You may still do it but if you were going to finish with a water based or Deft you would probably want to put dewaxed shellac between them or else you can have some finishing problems.

2. I you have a dark colored wood piece and have light colored sap wood on an open grained wood. The dark colored dust can fill the pores of the light colored sap wood and make it look dirty.

I am sure their are more but I can't think of them right now. Just trying to say that it is not a solution for every situation.

[Roger Bell]

Thanks a lot guys...... that helps a lot. Cheers.

[George Guadiane]

Thanks a lot guys...... that helps a lot. Cheers.
Roger,
I use denatured alcohol to raise the grain. Power sanding, rotating in both directions, on the lathe, AND with the drill (80 grit). I repeat using 120 grit (still no oil)... IF it is starting to look good, I add olive oil for darker woods and mineral oil for light. I go through to at least 600 grit. I usually don't add oil after 280 grit, removing as much oil as possible and drying up the "ground in" dust a bit.
When I'm satisfied, I apply water based poly, right away. I tried it once, and it worked REALLY well, and the early tests remain solidly bonded. So I continue to do it. I sand that dry and apply coats till satisfied.
If your paper clogs up, try some DNA on it, with a brass wire brush, you can clean up each grit and get much more use out of it. I just posted some pictures of the results.
You can also use shellac, it will almost bond to teflon, and shellac will raise the grain a bit for a first sand.