For some of us sanding is a word that is not in our vocabulary. This post is directed to the people that are greenhorns when it comes to sanding. Maybe you have sanded before but it did not go well, or you didn't have the right supplies. Whatever your case is, us here at Timberlane Finish Solutions will try to give you the best tips and tricks to up your sanding game and how to sand efficiently.
When looking for sanding products we want to get the most bang for your buck, right? You are in luck my friend you just stumbled upon the best sanding products in northern Ohio. We have everything: wood stain sprayers, electric and air sanders, very comfortable hand sanding pads, sanding belts, sweepers, and billions of types of sand paper.
When people talk about a sand paper's grit they are referring to the amount of sand particles in one square inch of sand paper. An 80 grit piece of sand paper has 80 grits of sand in one square inch, a 1200 grit piece of sand paper has 1200 grits in one square inch. However I would say that an 80 grit piece of sand paper could be a little too aggressive for wood, it may do more harm then good. I would recommend staring out a 100 grit and going from their, it all depends on how much material you need to remove. You are your best judge.
1200 grit sandpaper is primarily used to remove small impurities in paint and stain. We also don't sell 1200 grit sandpaper, so yeah.
If you are sanding a vertical piece of wood make sure you sand from top to bottom because the dust will fall on the place where you just sanded and nobody likes sanding or cleaning the place where you just sanded.
This is a very efficient way of sanding because you will not have to clean up as much sand and dust and therefor take less time. Another thing is to make sure you sand with the grain of the wood, if you cross over the grain of the wood you will see the strokes of the sandpaper and it will look really weird.
You may not be able to afford high quality equipment which is fine but if you can go for it. Electric sanders can cut project time in half, I don't know about you, but if I find a way to make a project go faster I'm jumping on it.
If you want to hand sand it that's fine because we make very comfortable hand sanding pads that congeal to your hand and make sanding a much more enjoyable and less painful experience.
The reason for using big to smaller grit is that if you start with a small grit and you have to take away a lot of material it will take forever plus it will be a lot more rugged if you go big to small.
The reason for using big to small grit sandpaper is because large grit sandpaper is designed to remove material quickly, smaller grit sandpaper is used to polish wood and add the extra touches to make it super shiny.
Also if you use a smaller grit sandpaper to remove a lot of material you will be burning through sandpaper faster then you can buy it which is not very economical. As a general rule always us big to small grit sandpaper.
I know it's the end of the day and you really don't want to clean up the area of your project or do much of anything, but I guarantee that if you clean up your work space in the morning it will be much easier to find all the stuff you were using the night before.
Also if you clean your work station and sweep all the saw dust of the floor and put away your tools maybe, just maybe you won't get killed with a knife by your wife. Life lessons with a random blog post guy, who is not married.
The last thing you want to do is run out of sanding discs or hand sanding pads because then you have to run to the hard ware store and get some discs, but the problem is they don't have the right grit or they don't have them at all! As a rule always have way too many sanding discs so you don't run out mid project.
If you know you don't have enough paper discs go out and buy some before you start your project not during. I don't know about you but I hate stopping in the middle of a project to do something else and I hate leaving unfinished. Always make sure you have enough sandpaper discs!
Congratulations for made it to the end of the post! Good job you're a trooper my friend. If you are interested in our sanders or pads click on pads or sanders and you will get to see some of the best sanders on the market.
If you want the best sanders and paper discs and other sanding equipment and you live in the areas of northern Ohio please buy some of our stuff it will change your life for the better my friend.
