What grit do you normally start sanding at after milling?

[Kevin Jenness]

For sure stroke sanders are under-appreciated. I would still have one if I had room. Takes some skill to use properly, but very productive, low energy use and can be had for low $. Fills the wide gap between hand-held and feed-through sanders.

[Warren Lake]

yes, every old european I knew had one, everyone.

I dont think about the space but it is 12 feet long and wedged into a space that is not much wider right now, if its moved then long boards can be done as well. Always good to have one with a U shaped frame then you are not restricted to length. My second one the frame was in the way. People complain about dust collection and its hard to use fatigue type stuff. Ill call hogwash on that im old and its not hard to use and when you are old you better get some exercise. My neighbour at 91 plus and still cuts her lawn and maintains a 300 foot wide property and the only reason she can is cause she has done it since her husband died. The first one I had I made and it mounted to a wall. Much smaller. It was mickey mouse but it did tons of work.

[Gordon Stump]

There is no reason to use all those grits Gordon on a stroke. Its not limited to moving up in grit like wide belts or circle making machines, those you are just chasing out the damage you just did from the grit before.

A wide belt has constant pressure, a stroke is you using it and its you making the pressure, you dont heat your belt the same way and the belt is longer and stays cool better. You dont even damage the wood as deep unless you want to, want to carve a hole you can do it. You cant put a donk on a stroke sander but you can do lots if you have the feel.

To be specific I use 100 G on a stroke sander and 80 grit on an edger sander to remove planer marks. Warren, I am not sure what you mean about not using progressively finer grits. After the stroke sander the products are ready for finishing. No hand sanding and almost no ROS in my shop.

[Warren Lake]

you dont need all progressive grits on a stroke. You can skip grits. Its not the same damage as a wide belt or circle machines where you are using the next grit to take out the previous one. I dont do much random its just fast light and hand straight line after Its all very fast as the work was all done on the stroke. Its almost more checking to be sure its all consistent. I never use the traveling arm just different hand pads depending on what im doing Hard for a first grit and soft for a fine. The piece of walnut shown in the you tube id not waste time on any coarse grit with a stroke, 220 straight once would do that piece. I still take five seconds with 220 on the dynabrade then hand straight both of those only seconds.

[Mel Fulks]

Warren, that’s a good point. The wide belt sanders use so much pressure. Even after using 150 grit We had to finish with orbital sanders.

[Warren Lake]

its not an exact thing either if I say i used 220 on Cherry say well what cherry, one grain pattern 220 showed no scratch and another grain pattern it did show, non of it would show once the finish was on but for that job where it was going was high end. The red oak I used i could use 100 grit then next 220 and it was done, I still went over it with the random with 220 as there were radiused edges and flinging the dynabrade around I always pushed into the 220 stroke surface. The problem with saying i do this or that, its not really the same all the time. With a stroke you can change your pressure five different ways or whatever. Even with the stroke push hard with a grit or then lighter with a soft block and its a finer finish than pushing hard.

[Derek Cohen]

I know this is vague and depends but...

I’m curious what grit others start their sanding routine at after milling? The planer is typically always the last step on both faces and edges unless the stock is wider than 9”, in which case I can’t feed it on edge through my planer and will rip to width on table saw or possibly tracksaw depending on the scenario.

I have an older 20” industrial level planer with a 4 straight knife cutterhead. The cutterhead is about 5” in diameter and leaves what I would call a great finish in well behaved woods. Knotty woods really crazy grain are generally not as well behaved and do result in some tear out. I typically like to work in well behaved domestic hardwoods and some premium softwoods (vertical grain DF, WRC, Alaskan yellow cedar, etc)

Said well behaved woods will have minimal milling marks and I usually start at 150 grit with my Festool ETS-EC 150/3 orbital. Mill marks from the planer typically clean up pretty quickly and easily at 150 and depending on the need / finish, I may begin and end with 150 and have had good results.

If I have to clean up ripped edges from a table saw I may use the Rotex 150 with 120 grit, maybe, but rarely feel the need to start at under 150. I am happy/ok with this approach but often read of folks starting well below here. I have tried this at times in the past (starting at 100 or 120) and noticed no difference in the end and only more time and sandpaper down the drain. The exception to this is if there is tear out that needs a good bit of material removal around the tear out area and I may start with even 80 depending on the severity of the tear out, but this is typically rare.

What grit do you guys normally start the sanding routine after final milling?

Hi Phillip

My thoughts are going to be different from others here as I built one-off pieces, do so for family or friends (no urgent deadlines), and am predominantly a hand tool user (but embrace power tools nearly as much).

I am fortunate to have a Hammer A3-31 with a carbide segmented head. The finish off this via either jointer or planer is excellent, and many would stop there and be content with even just a 180- or 240 grit. Similarly, it is possible to achieve a “glue line” rip off the Hammer K3 slider, and many might do so. However, in both cases I take hand planes to the boards. This takes very little time, creates a finish quite unobtainable from any sander, as well as leaving crisp edges (unlike any sander), however I am aware that using hand planes requires some experience and it is not the answer you are looking for. I mention it because I believe strongly that those who do not own and use a smoother and jointer plane are missing out.

I use sanders in a few situations. Firstly, I have a combination belt-disk sander with the sander section kept in the vertical. This is used for shaping curves (cut out on a bandsaw), and my go-to is 120 grit.

Secondly, I have a Mirka Ceros and a Festo ET2E (forerunner of the Festool ETS 150). These are 6” diameter and used exclusively with Abranet for the best dust extraction. The Ceros is incredibly light and excels in sanding angles, especially the vertical. The ET2E, despite being 20+ years old, uses its high weight effectively on flat panels and produces a superior finish. I have just purchased an unused 20-year-old Festo RS400 E-plus (forerunner of the Festool RTS 400 series) for sanding with the grain. This job has been done to date with Mirka hand sanders. These sanders are for panels where I must remove even the faintest glimmer of a plane track. Since I am working with fairly mark-free surfaces, I begin with 180, move to 240, and may finish on 400.

I should note that the “finger nail” catch you describe, which occurs when gluing boards together to create a panel, is best removed by either a hand plane or scraper. If I had to sand this, I would use 120 grit.

Hand planed …




Planed and then sanded …




Ditto …




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Rob Luter]

I hit milled and sized stock with a smoothing plane prior to (or instead of) sanding. I like to get rid of the mill marks.

[Mark e Kessler]

Depends on the wood but generally 120,150 on the Widebelt then a quick 150 RO to RO 180 Max. If its a frame that will have xgrain scratches then to 180 on the widebelt then quick 150 RO to RO 180 Max. I typically leave a little heavy out of the planer remove some with the 120 then for 150,180 just enough to remove the previous scratch. If no widebelt i start with 120g rarely lower.

[Mark e Kessler]

Wide belt and an edge sander is a game changer even for a small shop, you can pick up a used SCM for 4-10k depending on needs my 3hp cyclone handles it no problem, of course like you mentioned the power could be the problem as you need 3p for a WB (there are 1p but who wants that). I only have 60 amps going to my shop, I actually can get 100 but i only had a 60 amp on hand at the time. I can run a 9hp WB, the 3HP cyclone no problem

Thanks for the replies. It seems like we are all somewhat close.

I think this choice has to do more with personal preference mixed with the specifics / results of each person’s tools. I have experimented with starting at 120 instead of 150 as a general rule and it seems like 120 doesn’t necessarily remove milling marks notably faster than 150, takes longer overall, uses more paper, and I have a more more aggressive scratch pattern to clean up and remove. Often times with 150 (only) and using a finish like Rubio or similar, I can see no visible scratch pattern from that grit even in raking light.

The only sanders I have in my shop are 6” Festool random orbits (and a makita belt sander that occasionally comes out to play) and have often thought about what value other more stationary sanders could bring to my work. I could see something like a nice horizontal edge sander with 120 or 150 on it come in handy for quickly cleaning up edges / end grain....but will that create a scratch pattern that is rougher and take more time to clean up than just ganging up a handful of the same boards on edge and taking the ROS to them to start with? Probably too many variables to say.

A wide belt seems like such a good idea for efficiency in theory, but I’m not sure that it would be warranted for the type and volume of work that I do when evaluating what it costs and how much space, power, and dust collection it needs. I am not a cabinet shop so I don’t have the volume of massive amount of parts that are all the same / similar dimensions to run.

...it would be nice to have a smaller one for dealing with shop sawn veneers, though...

Thanks for the replies.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I am currently limited to starting up to ~ 10 hp / 30 amps @ 240v, 3 phase with my RPC. I have a 9 hp planer and table saw and it handles those no problem. I have read about starting smaller 3 Ph motors first with the RPC as a way to help start a higher load motor, but have never actually had the need to do that. If I could find a ~10 hp, 24” machine that wasn’t beat and needing a rebuild I could see that fitting and coming in handy but WBs are one machine that I have limited seat time in other shops and haven’t done much in depth research about what specifically I’d be looking for. One day I could see it fitting in once I have expanded the shop a bit. Thanks

[Mark e Kessler]

look for a 2000ish scmi 24” Wb, usually 4-5k. It is very simple machine, check condition of belt, and contact drum, belt is 1k to replace.

D955C50D-6FB4-41E0-B963-71B94B16C1C6.jpg

I am currently limited to starting up to ~ 10 hp / 30 amps @ 240v, 3 phase with my RPC. I have a 9 hp planer and table saw and it handles those no problem. I have read about starting smaller 3 Ph motors first with the RPC as a way to help start a higher load motor, but have never actually had the need to do that. If I could find a ~10 hp, 24” machine that wasn’t beat and needing a rebuild I could see that fitting and coming in handy but WBs are one machine that I have limited seat time in other shops and haven’t done much in depth research about what specifically I’d be looking for. One day I could see it fitting in once I have expanded the shop a bit. Thanks

[johnny means]

I start with 40 on the wide belt. All stock is left slightly oversized then planed to finished dimensions with 80 grit. In my experience, 120 never really removes the artifacts of milling. At least not in an efficient manner.

[Prashun Patel]

Off the planer, 150.

These days, I try to choose my wood carefully and as straight grained as possible. Costs more, takes more up front time. Makes the rest of the process enjoyable.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I start with 40 on the wide belt. All stock is left slightly oversized then planed to finished dimensions with 80 grit. In my experience, 120 never really removes the artifacts of milling. At least not in an efficient manner.

We must be building different things and working with different woods. 40 grit?

I can remove planer mill marks with a Festool random orbit sander pretty quickly at even 150. If I had to quantify that - I’d say the ROS can remove mill marks and be either done sanding or ready for the next grit at a rate of around 30-45 seconds per sq ft?? I know that’s not as fast as a pass through a wide belt but if you’re starting at 40 grit...how many heads is the WB and are you having to change paper grits in the machine to work through all the grits?

Not trying to question your process, more just curious how that works and why you’d start at 40 grit.