I finally stopped using my orbital sander for everything

For like 6 years I was sanding every single piece of trim and door frame with my orbital sander. Thought it was faster and better. Then last month I was refinishing a set of built-in bookshelves in my daughter's room and noticed these weird swirl marks that wouldn't come out no matter how many grits I tried. My neighbor came over to borrow a ladder, saw what I was doing, and just laughed. He handed me a cheap hand sanding block and said "slow down, work with the grain, not against it." Thirty minutes later the swirls were gone. Turns out I was fighting the wood fibers the whole time, especially on the end grain and around the corners. Now I only bust out the orbital for big flat surfaces like tabletops or cabinet doors. Everything else gets hand sanded. It takes longer but the finish looks like someone who actually knows what they're doing did it. Has anyone else made this same mistake or am I the only one who was too stubborn to switch tools?

1 comments

1 Comment

iris_rivera4420d ago

Guilty, I sanded a whole staircase backwards once and wondered why it looked like a cat went at it.