Wet Sanding

Re: Wet Sanding

Jim D. Clayton, NJ

>Tom,

You can wet sand most any finish. Most use an oil finish though when wet sanding. Water is another option and the one I prefer though.

You are right, water will raise the grain and in some woods bring out the "hairy" fibers. This allows the sandpaper to cut them off creating a smoother finish. Water is the only thing I would use for micromesh. Wet sanding with any of the finishes will clog and ruin the sand paper or micromesh.

Jim D.

Re: Wet Sanding

David Lykins - Marietta GA - guitardude

>I might be WAY off here, but for me the ONLY time I wet sand (with water) is AFTER I've applied some sort of finish such as lacquer or poly. I generally use wet/dry paper with 400, 600 and 1500 grits.

But of course there's lots of WW stuff I don't know, so maybe you could wet sand dry/unfinished wood. I've just never tried that.

Re: Wet Sanding

Mike Schwing from Md.

>I occasionally wetsand in a mixture of finish using 4/0 steel wool. It creates a bit of a slurry that fills pores and makes for a smoother finish. Plus it knocks down any grain that raises as even Watco raises at least some grain. Did just that last night - Watco and 4/0 wool on a 2nd coat, then wiped off excess. the 3rd coat will go on very smoothly.

But as for wetsanding bare wood? Nope, not me. No reason why it can't be done.

I spend a lot of time wetsanding final finishes, using micro-mesh, but with water only. Micro Mesh is too expensive to ruin with anything else.

Re: Wet Sanding

echo8287

>In wood shop in high school we dampened the dry wood to raise the grain. Then we sanded till smooth. Worked real well to smooth out the projects. The projects we did this to were not ones done on the lathe,mostly flat work. We also sometimes used sanding sealer first and then dampen with water then sand with steel wool.This was a long time ago so products have changed since then, there may be better ways to do this now. David

Re: Wet Sanding

Wally Dickerman in Arizona

>Oil sanding is a great aid in sanding. You'll use a little more sandpaper but you'll cut your sanding time down, and results will be better. I use the same oil that I use in finishing, but mineral oil will work. I only use oil for the heaviest grits. Others use it for all grits. Just apply the oil to the wood, keep using a fresh part of the sandpaper, and you'll move on to the next grit in half the time. A plus is there is very little sanding dust.

Applying oil to the wood also helps when shear scraping damaged end grain and tool marks.

Try it...I think that you'll be impressed.

Wally

Re: Wet Sanding

TomW in SouthJersey

>Wally and all. Thanks for the replies. I have a large oak bowl that would be a good test for this. There is a lot of open grain.

Thanks again,

Tom

Re: Wet Sanding

Jim Davies, Clayton, NJ

>Tom,

Check your spam box. I sent something using a different email address this morning.

Jim D.

Mineral Spirits

Ric Taylor

>Between coats of wipe-on poly that have dried, I wet sand with low-odor mineral spirits, with all grits. It works great.

Ric