How to Sand a Refinishing Project

Any home repair or furniture refinishing project must be done properly to achieve a professional appearance. Sanding the wood surfaces will produce better and smoother results when done correctly using the right sandpaper, grit and technique. Here is how to sand a refinishing project.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Choose the grit of the sand paper. Always start sanding wood with the smoothest usable grit of sand paper and work your way through the grit sizes until the desired smoothness is reached. In most cases start with 120 grit and finish with 150 grit.

2. Fold the sandpaper into thirds. This will give you three sanding surfaces ready to use. When one side becomes worn, just refold with a new surface showing.

3. Use a sanding block or sanding sponge to evenly spread out the pressure over a large area. It eliminates creating a depression from sanding too much in one area when refinishing a project.

4. Sand with the grain, never against the wood's grain. Use long, even strokes and overlap slightly.

5. Vacuum or brush away the dust as you sand and before changing to a finer grit.

6. Wipe the sanded article with a tack cloth to remove all dust and grit before applying the finish.

Tips & Warnings

• When sanding furniture with crevices and curved edges, take a strip of sandpaper and fold it to fit the angle of the crevice. Sand along the crevice only, using slow, even strokes when refinishing the piece.
• Always sand the entire piece with each grade of sandpaper before moving on to the next grade of sandpaper.
• Coarse grit sandpaper will cut small grooves into the surface and you will have to remove these grooves with subsequent sanding, making more work for yourself.