sand paper

[jimbo]

What sort of sand paper does every one use? I use alumium oxcide, I find it is sharp and if all the grades are used you get no scratch marks, I have also used pink chapagne but find it is to dear.
Jimbo

[northie66]

I don't pay much attention to my sand paper.  I had some in the garage when I started the hobby and i haven't run out yet.

[Dragonlord85]

I use whatever is on sale at Home Depot.

[Dustyknees]

I use 3M paper,hand sand only..I don't own any electric sanders. And I prefer beer to pink champagne..

[northie66]

Hand sand only Dustyknees?  You da man!   

[jimbo]

Beer for me as well but I'm sure good quality sand paper makes a difference, possibly it is because of my woodturning, if the paper is of low quality you tend to get scratch marks as you are sanding across the grain
Jimbo

[boxmaker]

Aluminum oxide for me, no garnet. I used to get sandpaper with no stearate, I read somewhere long ago the stearate  was supposed to interfere with some finishes. I never really seen a difference, so now I buy just regular aluminum oxide sandpaper.

[saggioculo]

How do you decide which grit to use?  Do you use more then one grit on a project?

Thanks
Anne

[geneVG]

I use power sanders on all my work, and hand sand to the hard to get to places.  Frist I use a `180 to do the ruff sanding, then I top it off with some 220.  I get what ever is on sale at Sears or Menards, and I'll get some when I'm in Des Moines at Woodsmith.

gene

[Gabby]

How do you decide which grit to use?  Do you use more then one grit on a project?

Thanks
Anne

Anne it all depends on how smooth you want it to be and how rough it is to start with. Most everyone starts out at a fairly coarse grit say 100 or 150 then work to the finer grits in succession the higher the number the finer the grit. Each time you are trying to remove the deeper scratches left by the previous one, untill you finally are satisfied with the finish. You can even go so far as to buffing if a glossy finish is desired.
Hand sanding is time consuming and requires hand strength and the proper blocks for the job.
Power sanding requires the proper sanders designed for the job, you can spend BUCKETS of money on those, or go minimalist and try to get by with whatever you have. (like me  )

I hope this helps,
Gabby

[tux_linux]

80 & 180 for preparation 240 & 400 for finish.

Preparation is made with a Bosch PRIO (battery powered) - which seems not even be available in US (ha! I've a tool you can't even get  )

So I prefer the Bosch-Sand pads for the sander and the corresponding paper for finish.

[jimbo]

I put this post up in June 2010 and it did not get much of a response but it is a very important part or all woodworking and can make or break a nice piece that you may have spent many hours making, when scrolling I do all the heavy sanding on a bench belt sander  and generally finish with 180 or 240 grit if I use wiping varnish I sand in
between coats with 380 grit to get a really smooth finish, more comments welcome
Jimbo

[Gabby]

OK but what has been missed here is to do most of your sanding BEFORE you cut, or fragile fretwork can be destroyed by heavy sanding!
Missing his marbles,
Gabby

[Paw Paw Ray]

The cheep stuff at the $Tree or HF

[saggioculo]

I have two belt sanders...craftman...one is 3in. wide and the other is 1in. wide.  I also have a black and decker "detail" sander.  I really only use them for a quick run to get the rough stuff off and then do the rest by hand which I like doing. 
Being new I was really confused when trying to figure out what grit sand paper to use.  How important is the type of wood I'm sanding and the grit of sand paper?  Or is it more or less the same for all wood...use a lower number grit for rough stuff and work my way to a higher number grit for the baby butt smooth effect?