Wood Working, Sanding and Clean up

Hi Everybody,

No wood working project is finished until it is appropriately sanded and cleaned. Sand all joints as needed. Some joints, like mid run splice joints, may need to be sanded with two different power tools and then touched up by hand. Other joints, like inside molding joints, such as inside crown molding and base board corners, seldom need to be sanded at all. Flat stock butt joints, like the joints in true wainscoting, usually can be quickly sanded with a random orbit sander. This is what you will need. You will need; a right angle grinder, a random orbit sander, a variety pack of sheet sand paper ranger in grit from 80 grit to 220 grit, 40 to 80 grit discs for the grinder and 120 grit to 220 discs for the sander. Here are a few words to the wise. Don't use a belt sander on your built-ins unless you already own one and know how to use it. You will cut noticeable grooves in the flat surfaces that will turn into noticeable waves when you try to fix them with the random orbit sander. The right angle grinder is for the first sanding of the mid run splice joints only. If and only if, they need to be shaped up a bit before they are sanded with the random orbit sander. That grinder takes wood away VERY quickly and will ruin your beautiful work, if you aren't careful. Sand all other molding profiles by hand or you will destroy some of the definition before you know it. You can clean up your project while you are sanding. Cleaning up your project amounts to adding a nail where one is needed and setting every nail that needs to be set. Please respond with any questions that you have in the comments section.

Thanks,
Randy McArthur