Sanding Zen

OK so I'm trying to learn the zen of sanding.
To be honest, as a beginner I'm still pretty dismayed that I can't go straight from glue up stage to a beautiful finish by waving some magic machine around for 10 minutes. This wasn't mentioned in the make woodworking your hobby glossy brochure. Tricky buggers.
I'm beginning to realise why the first rule of woodwork club is, don't talk about woodwork club sanding and finishing. Shhh!!

So what they do is rope you in. Get you hooked on the whole thing. Get you investing a fair bit of moolah on tools and wood. Then you're committed. Tricky!

So anyway for those of us where even instant gratification makes us impatient, we apparently need to learn the zen of sanding. For hours. And hours. And hours. :~
I finally got the old radio in the shed properly tuned to a station so I have some music. I've now got good lighting in the shed. I've even started using an old chair to take a load off and settle in. So I am trying to find the therapeutic advantages of sanding. I am.

One day I will find the zen of sanding.
To be honest - still searching for it though. Apparently it turns out, you can't order it on Ebay and expect it to arrive within 14 days. :o

I'm not sure what you're making but i've never spent more than 30 minutes sanding any of my projects, hours planing but never sanding.

So some things to consider are:
1) If the surface is really rough, consider using a hand plane to smooth the surface out before you begin, often times i'm happy with the finish the plane leaves behind
2) If you're using rough lumber consider dressing it before you begin, or sand before assembling is much easier than sanding afterwards.
3) Working through the grits is much more efficient than using a single grit from start to finish and change your paper over when you no longer feel like its working efficiently

However if you're making fine furniture then yep have fun learning the zen.

To be more serious for a moment, I just finished sanding a small project. When I started sanding this one I felt a little despondent that it wouldn't work out. But after 3 sanding sessions it has now turned out really well. I'll see what it is like after finishing but now I'm really looking forward to seeing how it will turn out.
Maybe a lot of 'the zen' comes from having the experience to know that it will be worth it in the end?

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To achieve sanding nirvana, perch yourself in a comfortable chair (with leg support), and tune the telly to a good movie. Have an adult liquid nearby too. Place a salvage towel in your lap, then the workpiece, and sand away.

Cheers,
Joe

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joe greiner

To achieve sanding nirvana, perch yourself in a comfortable chair (with leg support), and tune the telly to a good movie. Have an adult liquid nearby too. Place a salvage towel in your lap, then the workpiece, and sand away.

Cheers,
Joe

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Very good idea. Although I'm fairly sure the wife would be aghast if I did that in the lounge.

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Big projects or small projects you should be relaxing not stressing before you start sanding. I have always believed that if I am not in a good frame of mind I will produce a crappy surface because I might rush to get this done.

Having the radio or music in the background does help.

I spend a fair amount of time on the first grit(normally 120 grit) before moving on to the next grit. But once I start on the next grit I find that I can move through pretty quickly.

Ah, yes, that pinnacle point where you're close but no cigar just yet, but after seeing the results of doing something properly, its hard to actually go back to "yeah, looks good to me" phase. Sanding in some respects can be therapeutic to say the least. Her are 2 pics to show you result of a little bit of therapeutic elbow grease. one is a close up of the 12mmSq Stainless bar straight off the mill, one is a close up of the milling pits filed out, then one is of 3 bars where 2 have been filed, and wet sanded through the grits from 180 to 2000, with me sat in a chair in front of a B&D portable bench, the bar stock clamped in it rubbing back and forth, swirling, then back to back and forth, wet black hands, for 5rs. thats 5hrs each piece. 15hrs total, and honestly id do it again.