I made a top for my friend's daughter's vanity to turn it into a side board.
25" wide and 62" long and a full inch thick. Ran it through my Performax at 80 grit and then finished sanding ti to 120 with a ROS.
Wet it and sanded it again. Looked at it under strong fluorescent light while wet and dry. After applying the lacquer I found a couple of sanding swirls. Very minor and nobody cares but me, but I hated it.
So, what light do you use to help avoid this? I think my eyes are aging out. Any suggestions, tips or tricks would be appreciated.
I think fluorescent bulb are terrible. A ceiling full of fluorescents is worse. The problem is a broad light source is more diffuse and hides the scratches since light is coming from many angles.
I use "point source" lights, or actually, as close to points as I can get. I like small but bright LEDs, CLFs, and/or incandescent bulbs on swingarm or gooseneck fixtures. If the light is more at a glancing angle a non-diffuse light source can make a shadow in the valley of the scratch. I use these at the lathe, not only to see scratches but to judge the compound curved surfaces I'm creating.
Another thing I do to hunt for scratches: wipe the surface down with naptha. Alcohol will also work but naptha dries faster. When sopping wet the naptha will show me what the wood will look like if I use an oil finish. When "lightly" moistened or when a really wet application starts to evaporate the scratches become very visible with good lighting.
As for avoiding sanding swirls I prefer to use sanding blocks and sand with the grain by hand. But I don't make big things.
Your point about aging eyes is a good one. I use so much light in my shop that some people joke they need sun glasses. It is perfect for me. Bright light not only helps compensate for the degrading sensitivity but provides sharper vision due to the smaller aperture of the iris.
I came close to going to my car and getting my LED flashlight and turning off the lights and checking it in the dark. I clearly should have, but it looked so good and felt so good even wet with water, I copped out. Won't happen again.
For years I have called the first coat of finish "The Reveal Coat" because it doesn't hide anything, it reveals the flaws. In this case, not so much. I recently changed out a bunch of my lights to t-8 fluorescents. There are about ten of them and they are turned at many angles. My friends lights are at least 12 feet off the floor and are banks of t-5's. Mine are less than 8' off the floor. I am wondering if the height made a difference or the fact that his are all parallel to each other.
Clearly would have been wise to at least finish with a sanding block parallel to the grain. Time to relearn.
You can just use a drop cord. With your head 12 - 18" from the surface you are sanding, hold the drop cord ahead of you at arm's length, at the same height above the board. The light will reflect at a low angle (maybe 30° or so?) and scratches and other sanding imperfections -- such some snipe that's not yet sanded away-- will show up well.
Before changing to finer grits I put on a pair of 2X reading glasses and look at the surface in raking light. It is amazing what you see that you did not see before. Try a cheap pair and you might be surprised!
I'm surprised you haven't run across a medical examination light or something similar. This one is on a stand and rolls to where I need it. Found in a Veterans, Red, White, and Blue thrift store, if I remember correctly, for under $40. I wanted a operating theater light but I'm told USAID takes them and sends them to foreign clinics.
And 2nd on the cheaters glasses. Visit a Dollar Store and invest a buck. Choose the one that works best for you. +1 to +4.
I already wear glasses, about a plus 5. Can I get cheaters for my cheaters?
And I have a dental light on a swing arm over my lathe. Maybe I can get that into the act.
I am having more and more Duh! moments.
While running the piece through Performax, it hit the leg on my TS and stopped dead creating a slight trough about 2" form one end. I ran it through several more times to eliminate the trough and hit the leg again. This time there was no damage, but in hindsight, Doeh! All I had to do was roll the sander about two inches to get the leg out of reach. Do we just get slower on the uptake as we age?
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