46VIDEO Choosing Sandpapers

In this video, I want to tell you all about sandpapers and their grit ratings and

how the different kinds apply to woodworking. All sandpaper has a number that refers to how coarse or fine it is and that number is called the

grit rating. This piece of paper here P100. That means it's a 100 grit

sandpaper, which means that on every square inch of the surface there are approximately

100 abrasive particles. So as you could imagine, the smaller the number here, the coarser the sandpaper is

Now 100 is, that's about what I start with when I'm sanding

softwood. Softwood that's in good condition, so fairly smooth softwood. Maybe smooth softwood that doesn't have any

mismatch between the joints, for instance. Sometimes when you're doing woodworking, you have to glue pieces of wood together on their edge to get the kind of width you need and

sometimes those pieces might not be level. There might be a bit of a mismatch there

So wherever there's a lot of wood to remove, either because the wood is rough or because you've got a

slightly misaligned joint to line up, you'll want to go with something

coarser than 100 grit. The coarsest I ever use on wood is 80

This is a round disc for a 6-inch random orbit sander. I'll be telling you more about these machines later

But 80 grit, either in this form or in sheet form, that's the coarsest that I would use on any kind of wood

And it's very important, vital in fact, that you sand incrementally. So if we're starting with, say, an 80 grit abrasive

then the next one we would want to go with, and sanding again, would be

100 grit or or maybe 120. There's a package of 120. But going from 80 to 120, that's going from coarser to finer. That's the biggest jump we would want to do

If we went any bigger than that, we would not be removing the 80 grit scratches

that existed on the wood because of our previous sanding. All we would be doing is smoothening off the tops of

these abrasion marks. We wouldn't actually be going right back down to the wood. We wouldn't be getting the smoothness that we want

After 120, we're going to want to use 180. That's a reasonable jump. A little bit finer

And there you go. There's the 180 number. Now 180 is not as smooth as

you want for proper, high quality wood finishing. After 180, I'm going to take it to 220. So once again, this is sanding steps going through

smoothening all of the project parts with the 80, with the 120, with the 180, and

then the 220. That'll be enough. This is fairly fine as these things go. So

you don't need to go any finer than that. Generally, but sometimes with hardwoods that you want a really smooth finish on, you might go to

320. So you can go from 220 to 320. That sounds like a pretty big jump numerically, but it does work

in real life. All of these grit numbers apply to sheet sandpaper, which can be used by hand or in certain machines

It does apply to discs. Certain kinds of sanders use discs. And it does also apply to belts

because there's a thing called a belt sander, which I'll be explaining all about later. Grit ratings are universal across the board

And if you're thinking, wow, Steve, that's a fair number of different kinds of sandpapers, and the answer is yes. If you want to get good at this

you do have to stock a fair number of sandpapers. And they're not, they're not cheap

I mean, it could be, you know, where I live, it could be a couple of dollars a sheet or some other good stuff

You can get very, very inexpensive sandpapers that have the same grit ratings

But the cheaper sandpapers aren't going to last as long. They're actually more expensive in the long run, because the more, the premium quality papers

they just last a long time before they wear out. So you need something to keep all of this in order

And just before I finish up with this video, let's go over and I'll show you how I keep my sandpapers organized, ready to go

without anything getting wasted or curling up or torn or crumpled up

So come and take a look at my sandpaper drawer here. It's just a dedicated spot. I keep all my sandpapers here

These paper clamps, they work great for organizing the different, the different grits to keep everything in order

These are rubbing pads. It's also another form of abrasive that's used for polishing a finish as a final step before you get going. But

you need a spot like this. It doesn't have to be a whole drawer like this. You're probably not going to need as many pieces of different kinds of sandpaper as I have here, but

you need some sort of a spot. Get some paper clamps. Treat your sandpaper well, and it'll always be available to you whenever you need the different grit ratings

There's one little trick I want to show you. These sheets of sandpaper

they need to be torn into pieces. You can't really use a full sheet like this. And there's a little trick

for tearing them accurately and quickly in preparation for hand sanding. And all you need is some kind of sharp, sharpish edge on

a table or a tool or anything like that. So let's go over to my edge sander, and I'll show you how to tear a sheet of sandpaper properly

so you can get the most out of it. Standard sheets of sandpaper are eight and a half by eleven, just like a regular sheet of paper

But you can't really use sheet sandpaper in that shape. You need something smaller

Either a half a sheet or a quarter sheet. And making that happen is pretty easy. Don't use scissors

There's no need to get out your pair of scissors. You just just fold it. Fold it and then find some sort of an edge

that's that's sharpish. And then that's easy. You can actually do quite a number of pieces at one time

So you take them like this, fold it again. If you want quarter sheet pieces

which is what I usually want with sheet sandpaper. And there. You're all ready to go. Now, ready to go for what? Well

this can fit into a quarter sheet finishing sander. That's an electric power tool. I'll tell you all about that coming up

Most of the time though, I use sheet sandpaper for hand sanding. And when I have a quarter sheet like this

I fold it in thirds. Why? Well, if I'm sanding a piece of wood like this

there's a lot of friction on this side against the wood. And if I just had my hand on the paper

well, chances are my hand's gonna slide and the sandpaper is not really gonna move

So I want an abrasive surface where my hand is gonna be as well in order to let me drive that sandpaper back and forth

Now that doesn't mean that I'm wasting the abrasive here and here. Because when I've sanded enough on this side

but this is clogged and worn out and not really working anymore

well, then I can just go like this. Now I have another fresh side there

And I can go like this. And I have the final fresh side. So eventually I'm gonna use this whole quarter sheet

But it's most efficient and most economical if you cut it up into quarters and fold it like this