Sanding Technique for Oil Finish on Wormy Maple - RO150

[Van G]

Doing my first matte/oil finish project on wormy maple. Making floating shelves, fire surround w/ bench, and a couple of desktops w/ mitre side out of 8/4 and 6/4.

I'm starting with 40 granate on RO150 in Rotex mode. I then work my way through the 60, 80, 120, 150, 180.

Questions I have:
At which grit should I stop using Rotex mode?

Am I doing all the real work w/ 40 and then just working my way up to remove scratches? I've found it hard to get rid of planar ripple (unless this is something in the wood). Do I just go back down to 40 and start the process again?

 

[Van G]

I'm only able to plane up to 13" and the glue up's are 17 - 24" wide and some are pretty long. Found the 40 took the joints and imperfections down pretty quickly.

At this point I have to hunker down and sand. Just had some questions about process.

Thanks for the tip on some maples having ripple in them. This is likely sugar or norway maple.

 

[leakyroof]

I'm only able to plane up to 13" and the glue up's are 17 - 24" wide and some are pretty long. Found the 40 took the joints and imperfections down pretty quickly.

At this point I have to hunker down and sand. Just had some questions about process.

Thanks for the tip on some maples having ripple in them. This is likely sugar or norway maple.

  Warner Construction uses his Rotex in Rotex mode all the way from coarse to high grits if I remember his posts [smile] correctly. I haven't tried that, so I'm like the other posters in that I switch to Random Orbit around the 120 grit range, or grab one of my other sanders that are smaller and lighter than my big Rotex...

 

[Van G]

Put in a couple hours last night and got it down to near science after 300 bdft...  [crying]

Rotex all the way to 120 worked well and then just a few passes with each upto 180. Still deciding on finish so I'll stop at that and start fitting things together.

Fingers buzzing and shoulders sore working with that thing!