How to production sand Pine faster ?

[Mel Fulks]

At least one of the pattern makers supply houses sells a "pitch solvent" that cleans sandpaper. I don't know if it would
disolve the joints on belts. I think I would use 80 grit then 100 ,nothing finer.

[Marc Jeske]

I do not need to maintain full 3/4", so a planer may work.

Do not have one

Robert - Agreed, still need to sand after planing.

No problem to sand a bit, just wanting to reduce the time spent doing it.

[peter gagliardi]

For the material you describe, it seems the best and simplest answer is to start with 80 grit.
Also, get a bigger sander- a 6” disc sander has , and sands almost 45% more area as a 5” machine.
The disc sander will be the ideal tool to sand and deal with the less than flat, slightly cupped lumber.
Stay away from a drum or even widebelt type machine, for 2 very important reasons, they work best on perfectly flat lumber, and they work best on hardwoods. The paper will gum and load quickly.
I sand thousands of feet of material a year, and that is what I would recommend and do..
Pine of any kind will load paper quicker.
Klingspor has been a very good value in our production shop for the last 10-12 years.

[Marc Jeske]

For the material you describe, it seems the best and simplest answer is to start with 80 grit.
Also, get a bigger sander- a 6” disc sander has , and sands almost 45% more area as a 5” machine.
The disc sander will be the ideal tool to sand and deal with the less than flat, slightly cupped lumber.
Stay away from a drum or even widebelt type machine, for 2 very important reasons, they work best on perfectly flat lumber, and they work best on hardwoods. The paper will gum and load quickly.
I sand thousands of feet of material a year, and that is what I would recommend and do..
Pine of any kind will load paper quicker.
Klingspor has been a very good value in our production shop for the last 10-12 years.

OK, all makes sense.

I will search Archives... but anyone recommend 6" RO sander ? bang for buck, (green ones not in budget!)

I will call Klingspor and ask for recommendation of paper for Pine.

So I'll get that and start w 80, finish w 120 and see how it goes.

Most pieces I do, do not get spray lacquer... the ones that do I go to 180.

Thanks again all, Marc

[Marc Jeske]

I'm continuing the which sander to buy question in this thread --

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....37#post2940637

Marc

[Prashun Patel]

Robert - Agreed, still need to sand after planing.

Um, I urge you to reconsider. You are not finishing, so the planer marks are not as visible as you might think. Also, you do say that this is rustic.

SKIPPING sanding altogether is the best way IMHO to improve your economics of time and money.

A simple bench top planer will pay for itself in time very quickly.

I make a lot of rustic stage props out of 2x4's and planed construction lumber. I never finish it and I rarely notice the planer marks - especially when the cutter head is maintained. The planer marks almost always become evident only after the first/second coats of finish.

[David M Peters]

I am another vote for opting for getting a planer and only sanding when strictly necessary. My helical head jointer/planer does a great job on SYP material.

The time saved on messing around with hand-held sanders would pay for a machine fairly quickly.

[Marc Jeske]

I may have a one owner excellent shape Parks available to me... but romance aside I think the best choice may be the current model Dewalt??

If I got that, I would live for awhile w the stock head/ blades and see how they work for me.

Even though my work is rustic in many ways, I do NOT accept ripple on my finished product.

So, I gotta feelin I would still be sanding faces a bit anyway.

Some of my pieces get stained/ laquered...I assume I still need to sand faces to get rid of "Burnishing" and re open cells for staining better ?

Marc

Caskets Two Brenda 4-17-18 Black camera 060.jpgCaskets Two Brenda 4-17-18 Black camera 038.jpg

[Brian Holcombe]

Hand plane it, takes two seconds per board.

[Marc Jeske]

Mhhhhmmmmm...

Not for me.

Maybe for this Guy.

Marc

2:16 - 2:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs9X-XzFGHI

[Brian Holcombe]

Practice until you can. A #4 plane with a sharp edge and well set chip breaker would alleviate these issues, go much faster than sanding and would produce a very high quality finish.

But you need to put effort in to do so, it’s not an overnight solution. It’s also not impossible or even highly difficult.

Its also very low overhead, costing a couple hundred dollars if you really go wild.

[Marc Jeske]

I really honestly honor what you are saying... but just somehow it has not (Neander and hand work) has never grabbed me by the heart.

I've made "fabbed" some pretty cool stuff in my years... 2000 hrs put into a school bus RV I and Kids basically full timed for like 12 yrs... Boston Whaler bare hull w super cool console, antenna arch, 750 watts searchlights, plus sooo many goodies, 14x 80' quasi timber frame pergola, two full sets NICE kitch cabs, "Industrial" from scratch balcony rails and staircase, etc.

All turned out pretty good, but lotsaaa hours being fussy.

Allota design, "multi media" wood, AL, Fiberglass, compound curves,

But somehow the hand work of wood never grabbed my heart.

But seriously I do honor those skills.

Marc

[Jim Becker]

Marc, I will say that with my frequent interactions with Brian as of late, I actually do pull out my hand planes more frequently than I ever did because he's reinforced their value to me...and the surface can be amazing with only a little effort. But I can appreciate your position relative to working full boards. You're going to have to balance the fact that by using a machine with a rotating cutter head, even with the slowest feed rate you can come up with, you're still going to have tooling marks. It's the nature of the beast. Alleviating them, since that's important to you for your final presentation, is going to require either sanding or hand-planing. No way around that.

[Andrew Joiner]

We discussed this:https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ing-in-Contest
I later found out the hand planed surfaces had more tearout, but that was acceptable to those "judging".
I think there's a reason most production shops use power tools. My own tests with hand planing and scraping prove they have minimal use in my work.

[Mark Hennebury]

If you are interested in a high end, crystal clear, clean finish, done fast, without tearout. in a wide range of woods, even curly and birdseye maple, get a supersurfacer, if you want it done really fast get a double one that cuts the top and bottom surface in one pass.

rsz_1sam_1812.jpg[rsz_img_4020.jpgrsz_img_4021.jpgrsz_sam_1817.jpgrsz_shavings18.jpgshavings1a.jpgSAM_1805.JPG

QUOTE=Andrew Joiner;2941158]We discussed this:https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ing-in-Contest
I later found out the hand planed surfaces had more tearout, but that was acceptable to those "judging".
I think there's a reason most production shops use power tools. My own tests with hand planing and scraping prove they have minimal use in my work.[/QUOTE]