Finishing Steps - Cut to size, now what?


Fxguy

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So I'm getting pretty good at at least cutting pieces to size, need to work on getting tighter joints, but where most of my projects fail is that I get impatient to start assembling them that I skimp on finish. So I looked at Tauton's complete guide to finishing, but what I'm looking for is more of finish prep than actual finish. Once you have a piece cut to the proper size (or over a little in some cases) what steps do you take to prepare it for finishing? An example is that I just finished a piece of plywood shelf for a closet, and after cutting to size, I sanded with 80 grit, followed by 120 grit, followed by 220 grit in preparation for painting it with plain interior latex paint. Probably overkill I know. 

So when preparing for finishing, what steps / grist do you sand with and what sanders do you use? I currently have a Porter Cable bench top disc / belt sander combo and a Ryobi 5 inch oscillating sander, but thats about it. Finally hooked up the Ryobi to dust collection which has improved my tolerance for sanding. 

Is there a text on this or a section of a text that deals really well with sanding / finish prep? 

 

Thanks!

 

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Surface prep is a topic all itself...

After milling, joinery, shaping, whatever --- and right before assembly, I sand each component from 80 through the grits to 150 with some sort of machine -- maybe a stationary sander, maybe an ROS, maybe a panel sander -- whatever... The important point: it really doesn't really matter what sander -- just use one appropriate to the size of the component -- I'd say the 6" RoS is my go-to for small components and a stationary sander for the large ones... You're really just removing the milling marks, shop marks, handling, etc... Yes, it's prep, but rough prep... You've got the 5" RoS now, so I'd look at getting a 6" RoS -- the gain in efficiency is worth the spend.

Once all the rough stuff is done, I switch to hand sanding -- yup, hand sanding --- good old-fashioned sanding blocks and sheets of paper -- nothing is better... I start at the last grit that I ended with a machine -- typically 150...  The hand sanding (with the grain) is to remove the small marks left by the machine sanders -- and no matter how much you spend, they all leave marks... I hand sand each component with 150 & 180 -- maybe higher if an oil finish is planned... For latex, 150 is fine...

If it's going to be a WB finish, I pre-raise the wood's grain by wipe-on-wipe-off distilled water, let dry, then sand-off the raised fuzzy grain with a light scuff of 320g...

 

That's my basic approach... Hope it helps...

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Surface prep is a topic all itself...

Exactly!  And definitely NOT a topic I've paid much attention too. I've only recently started getting into projects worth worrying about finishing. The only thing is that most references I've found skim over surface prep while spending 90% of the time / text on actual finishes as opposed to surface prep. 

What do you mean by pre-raising the wood grain with wipe-on-wipe-off distilled water? So do you just take some distilled water, wet a rag, wipe down the piece, then take dry cloth and wipe it down once more and let dry? 

Thanks!

 

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After if finish machine sanding, bare wood I sand to 180 - 220. Do like others have said raise the grain, then either use the 220 or 320 to sand when the grain is raised. At this stage I will either hand sand ( if it's not to large a piece) or machine sand.

wipe the piece with a tac cloth depending on what you want, use a grain filler, then stain, seal with a sealing coat ( actual sanding sealer of a 50% cut of finish)

then go add a coat sand when dry and repeat. Usually 2 - 3 coats. Be sure to let each coat dry thoroughly before recoating

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