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Pattern 1: Work each board in the glue-up separately. Work along the grain in short strokes, back and forth.
Editor’s Note: Troy Sexton has prepared an excellent piece on his sanding techniques for the issue that is headed to subscribers right now. As someone who has observed a lot of his work during the last decade, I can tell you that Troy is an excellent sander. And he doesn’t spend a lot of time at it. In this excerpt from his forthcoming article in our November 2006 issue, Troy discusses some of his techniques for sanding glued up panels.
Sanding glued-up panels is an art unto itself, though many of the same principles you learned from sanding doors apply. My approach is a bit unorthodox compared to what you read in many woodworking textbooks, but it works quite well and is fast.
When working a panel, I still use all the same sandpaper and the same techniques I described above, but the pattern in which I move the sander is important. There are three kinds of sanding patterns I use for each grit.
First, I sand the panel by moving the sander along the grain of the board back and forth and concentrate on one board at a time in the glue-up. For example, if the panel is made up of three boards, I’ll work the first board back and forth, then the middle board, then the third board. My strokes are pretty short, usually about 12″ right and then 12″ left, back and forth.
As with sanding doors, keep the center of the pad over the work at all times , otherwise you could easily roll the tool off the panel and ruin the crisp edge.
Pattern 2: Now work across the grain. Overlap your strokes and work all along the grain, then back again.
Pattern 3: End up your work with long sweeping strokes all along the grain of the panel. Overlap your strokes all across the width.
Second, I sand the panel by moving across the grain of the entire panel up and down the panel and all along its length. These strokes should overlap slightly. As always, keep moving and don’t press down to try to remedy problem areas.
Third, I sand the panel by using long, overlapping strokes with the grain that run the entire length of the panel. (If the panel is too long for one long stroke with my arm, I’ll do this pattern in sections.) When I’ve completed these three patterns, I dust off the panel and examine the surface with a magnifying glass. If all the planer marks are gone, I’ll move to the next-higher grit and repeat the three patterns.
– Troy Sexton, contributing editor
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Troy –
Thanks for the great article! I’m currently building an oak crezenda/bookshelf for my neighbor that is enormous! Of course, with the increased size of the project comes some serious sanding.
All the time I spent cursing my ROS should have been spent going down in grit. Now, I even start at 80 – it really erases the machining marks and makes the initial sanding just THAT much easier!