The Purpose of Sanding

Series Summary

A sander is a power tool used to smooth wood and wood finishes. Sanders have a way to attach the sandpaper that does the work. Woodworking sanders are usually operated by electrical power, although some work on compressed air. There are many different types of these machines. Woodworking sanders include belt sanders, disc sanders, and orbital sanders, among others.

Sanders and sanding machines don't have to be used by professionals, contrary to popular woodworking opinion. In this free video series, you'll learn how to improve your home carpentry and wood finishing skills with video instructions on how to use sanders. Our expert will cover belt sanders, orbital sanders, and hand sanding as well. You'll find out how to shape wood, care for your sanders, and how to safely use sanding machines. So, get out your wood furniture and go to town!

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Kevin and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to be talking to you today on the use of sanding machines. When you're using sanding machines, primarily you're doing just that. You're sanding, you're achieving a smooth surface that is going to get it ready for finish to be put on the actual piece of whatever it is that you're building. On top of that, you can also use the sanding machines to shape and sculpt certain pieces in solid wood. We'll be talking about different grits of the sanding machines and when to use those as well. So some of the machines we're going to be taking a look at is belt sanders. We have a bigger belt sander here and then we have a little bit smaller one. They essentially perform the same task but this is for use on bigger things such as tabletops, and things like that. This would be a little more that you can get inside a cabinet, do some light shaping. It's a little more versitle; it allows you to get into some small areas that you can't get this much larger sander into. And then this is a random orbital sander, which is pretty much just a clean up tool for the work that the previous two sanders have done. These belt sanders are generally going to be used with heavier grits like, well you can start as low as thirty-six if you're trying to shape something, and then you go up into the higher grits, fifty, eighty, one hundred, one twenty, is when you really begin to get to smooth things out and achieve a real finished piece look. Then that's when you come in with the orbital sander to kind of take out these heavier machine marks that the belt sander is going to use. Then from there you're going to go to hand sanding for a truely smooth surface that's going to be ready for finishing."