I am relatively new to wood turning and looking for information on sanding. Specifically how to tell the difference between tool marks and sanding lines and how to tell between the series of scratches left behind by the different grades of sandpaper. For example if I am going from 80 to 120 to 180 and I am doing the 180 how do I know that the scratches I am seeing on the harder parts of the piece are not from my 80 or 120 sanding? Or to put it another way how do I know that all the sanding lines/scratches I am seeing are from the latest 180 session and I am safe to go on to the next finest grit? I find myself seeing obvious lines/scratches when I put on a finish and I don't know how far back in grits I need to go to remove them. I do rub on a shellac mixture after I sand at 120 as a test to see what I can see before going all the way to 4 or 600 grit. I sand at the slowest speed my lathe allows and I hand sand with 'regular' off the shelf sandpaper. Not using a rotary power sander on my drill. So all the scratches are concentric. I do not have a way to reverse my lathe. I to end the turning with tools with a sharpened scraper to remove as much tear out as possible depending on grain orientation.
Is it possible to end up without left over sanding lines? Maybe I am over thinking this but the finer pieces I see do not have sanding lines that can be seen through the final finish.
Thanks very much,
Jim Lee
Is it possible to end up without left over sanding lines? Maybe I am over thinking this but the finer pieces I see do not have sanding lines that can be seen through the final finish.
Thanks very much,
Jim Lee