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Sanding wood properly is a very big part of your success with any kind of
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woodworking and especially cabinet making that we're talking about here. And part of that success comes down to using the right tools in the right way
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So I use three different kinds of power sanders for my woodwork. If I have a lot
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of material to remove I'm using a belt sander. A 100 grit belt is a great
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all-around starting abrasive level. It's useful for softwoods and hardwoods and I use this when I have to level up panels or if I have a lot of mill marks
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to remove. Now the next sander I like to use is this half sheet inline sander
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Most of the movement of the pad here is back and forth so I can orient it in
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relation to the grain and avoid cross-grain scratches. Now the avoidance of those kinds of scratches is one of the reasons why I definitely do not like
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to use a random orbit sander on fine woodworking. This is a very common tool
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for people to use but because of the action, the rotating action and then the
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orbiting action together of the random orbit sander, that can leave cross-grain
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scratches behind in your woodwork and it looks pretty bad especially after you've
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stained it. You might not notice anything at first but the darker the stain the
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more pronounced any cross-grain scratching will be. So that's why I like
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to stick with the half sheet inline sander for what I would call
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intermediate sanding. Sometimes you can use it on wood that's come from the
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lumberyard if it's particularly smooth. You won't necessarily need to use the belt sander but this is a good intermediate level machine. This
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quarter sheet finishing sander is what I like to use as the final machine
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step. On pine or hardwood I would use a 180-220 grit abrasive. The inline sander
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I like to use 120 and then I finish up with some 220, 180 or 220, used by hand in
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the direction of the grain only. Now one other thing, this is a crepe rubber block
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and it's extremely useful for getting the most out of your sanding belts. It
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doesn't do very much to clean the abrasives on these tools but if you
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start the machine and you hold the crepe rubber block in this orientation
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so that the belt is moving this way and I'm holding the rubber block this way
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it's going to do a fabulous job at getting out the sawdust and some resins
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and really renewing the action of a belt. You can probably get twice the belt life
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if you clean them with a crepe rubber block
