Sanding progression

[FS7]

I only use 60 or 80 if I need to remove a ton of material, like I have a long panel joint that's 1/32" off or more. Beyond that, I don't think I've ever gone to 320. 220 I buy in bulk, and I use a lot of that. 

If the surface is rough, 120 is a good starting point. I'd say I start between 100 and 150 depending on the surface, and end with 220.

Some of it depends on the wood also. Particularly hard tropicals mandate no skipping of grits or you won't get out the intermediate scratches. It also requires more sanding in general (in terms of time).

[MichaelMouse]

Watched a segment of a show today about sanding, one of the stars suggests a progression of 60, 80, 120, 180, 220, 320. What do you guys do? 

I've rarely gone down to 60 or up to 320. If I've thickness planed it myself then I tend to start at 150, if I buy it planed then I'll start at 120. Reason is that when I thickness my last passes will be to take just a shaving off of both sides to lessen the planer marks. Then I'll finish at 220, using a shellac and turpentine mixture to get a glass smooth finish before applying the varnish.

Saw that myself.  Snickered at the suggestion.  How dull was the planer that surfaced the 60 board?  If you have large mill marks or burnishing, might need 80, but it depends on your sander.  ROS can start with a larger number than finish sander.  

For unequal height glue joints, might use the same, though a couple passes with a cabinet scraper levels a lot.  

Open-grain woods like oak don't need as high a grit as maple, for example.  The optometry folks say we can resolve ~300 medium contrast lines (pixels), so 320 with the grain is as high as I go.  BTW, that's 320 CAMI .  Beyond is burnishing, I guess, though lots of folks brag about the super high numbers, which are, as I see it, for metal, where there's no grain figure.

[Arlin Eastman]

Watched a segment of a show today about sanding, one of the stars suggests a progression of 60, 80, 120, 180, 220, 320. What do you guys do? 

I've rarely gone down to 60 or up to 320. If I've thickness planed it myself then I tend to start at 150, if I buy it planed then I'll start at 120. Reason is that when I thickness my last passes will be to take just a shaving off of both sides to lessen the planer marks. Then I'll finish at 220, using a shellac and turpentine mixture to get a glass smooth finish before applying the varnish.

I start with 180, 220, 320, and 400 unless it is a turned item and I go up to 1000.  It also depends on how high to go on if staining.  I have heard the higher the grit the less the stain penetrates. 

To me I love a nice smooth finish that entices people to run their hands over it.

If you do not go by the grit sequences above they you will end up with scratch marks since the first grit takes off the bad stuff and the other grits remove the scratch marks of the lower grits.

[CLETUS]

150,220 done for almost everything.

150, 220, 320, then wet sand with 400, 600 on knife handles.

[Stwood_]

I may start with 80, depends.
Usually it's 100, and stopping with 120, or a worn 100

[TRW]

My sandpaper is mostly 80, 150, 220, 320.  99% of the times I use a 6-inch ROS.  

Because I use rough cut lumber and plane it, it comes out of the planer pretty darn smooth so I mostly only use 150 and 220.  I almost never use the two extremes I have (80 and 320).

During finishing I use 5000 grit sanding pads or gray sloth brites to buff between coats

[retrdwoodwkr]

Depends on the wood and your final product.  For oak, I usually sand bare wood to 220, then maybe very lightly wet sand between layers of wipe on urethane with 320.  Right now I have a displaylay stand of red marblewood, very smooth and hard.  Initial plan was to finish with shellac, French polish.  Decided at last minute to switch to glossy wipe on poly.  Not in love with the end product, looks fake.  The reason I opted out of shellac was that the piece is small and would be hard to get around corners.  My mistake, will go with shellac nest time.

[Gibbcutter]

Depends on the type of wood.

[Alan S]

I didn't see the statement referred to, but would interpret it as saying that this is the sequence.  Start where you need to, and end where you want, but bigger steps than these can involve more work as you take out the marks from the last grit.

[Rob Young]

During finishing I use 5000 grit sanding pads or gray sloth brites to buff between coats

I used to use sloth brites but they were so slow.  Kept eating all the house plants too.