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- Begin sanding with a starting grit of 80 to 120 for most woods.
- It’s generally not necessary to sand finer than 220 grit.
- Don’t switch to a finer grit until the sanding scratches of the prior grit are uniform.
- Use a low-angle “raking” light to evaluate the uniformity of the sanding scratches.
- Always sand with the grain of the wood with the final passes.
- If you need to remove lots of material, sanding across the grain with the initial pass can be a viable option but extra effort will be required to remove the cross-grain sanding marks with subsequent passes.
- Don’t try to sand off glue or pencil marks when hand sanding. (Exception – see the next tip).
- Draw pencil lines across the joint between plywood and a solid wood edge. Sand until the lines just start to disappear, which means the two pieces are flush.
- Place a piece of scrap wood of equal thickness next to the board being sanded. Positioning the sander on top of both boards prevents rounding over the edges of the good boad.
- “Break” or lightly sand edges to prevent splintering.
- Change sandpaper as soon as it becomes dull.
- Don’t use a belt sander on veneer !
- Sand between finishes with a grit no coarser than 200.
- A hand scraper is often more effective at removing mill marks than sandpaper.
- Use dust collection, preferably built into the sander. This improves both the sanding efficiency and the breath-ability of the work environment.
