Sanding

Sanding process usually accomplishes three tasks:

1. Removes excess dried glue
2. Adjusts the case dimensions to the proper size
3. Makes the surface smooth so that it will be ready for the final finishing process.

The traces of the wood glue are inevitable no matter how carefully you wipe out excess wood glue during the gluing process. The best way to get rid of that glue is to sand it from the surface when hardening process fully completed.

The oscillating spindle sander works great on the curved surfaces but is not so good when you need to sand flat surfaces for example the top and the bottom of the case. To sand such surfaces it's better to create your own sanding jig - just attach a sheet of sanding paper by masking tape to some steady flat surface for example marble block.

It's recommended to make the size of the wooden components by 1-2 mm larger than the desired size. That excess wood on the edges allows to correct all drawbacks which inevitably occur after sawing and gluing processes. The spindle sander removes the wood very quickly especially when low grit paper is in use so be careful.

The sanding can be accomplished with sanding paper of three grit sizes. It can be started with 80-120 grit paper for initial rough sanding continued with 180-220 grit paper and finished with 320 grit paper. You can find in the store 400 grit paper and higher. Practically 320 grit paper is enough to get pretty smooth surface.

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