Staining wood

[firewhatfire]

While sanding a couple of blanks I have ended up staining the wood from sanding down in the grain.

Any quick fix tips for this problem or is this one going to be operator error?

Phil

 

[ctubbs]

Are you talking about sand grains deposited into the wood, or cutting the soft part down more than the harder part? If it is the sand grit, once it is there, you are pretty well stuck with it. If that is what you have, buy some lighter color sand paper and high quality.
Charles

 

[firewhatfire]

talking about the sand grains, been searching old threads looking for how to stop and I have decided that it going to be operator error.

I guess its time to throw away some dirty sandpaper.

 

[ctubbs]

Phil, I did a "STUPID" back in October. Being a cheap skate, I was at Harbor Freight and found packs of paper through 1200. Bought several packs of various grits and tried to use them on some really nice Cedar and couldn't figure out where all the tiny black specks were coming from until I noticed that the grit was not staying on the paper. I could even feel the grit stuck in the wood with my finger. The only cure I found was turn the grit out with a skew and sand with Nortons paper. It is very light in color and stays put well. It also last much longer than the cheap stuff. Looks like you still get what you pay for. Buy the good stuff and don't skimp. Pay me now or pay me later as the Fram man said. Best of luck with your sanding.
Charles

 

[bradh]

Try one of those dish scouring pads meant for ceramic cookware. They are sold under Scotchbrite name. There are lots of cheaper versions out there too. With the lathe off, rub the pads along the grain. This will dislodge much of the grit, a blast of compressed air will help clear out the loose particles.
Even with good quality paper you will still get grit catching in open pore woods such as Oak. I use one of these scouring pads as part of my regular sanding process.

 

[thewishman]

Sometimes the metal from the bushings will discolor lighter woods. To fix that you can seal the wood with thin CA before sanding, Also, you can sand only out towards the bushings, rather than sanding from the bushings inward.