What's a good starting grit progression to use with a 150mm sander on wood?

[CoastRedwood]

I just bought an ETS EC 125 with the 150mm pad, and my plan is to buy a custom selection of 150mm Granat paper from Tool Nirvana (50 sheets, though I could be convinced into 100). What would be a good starting selection of grits? My plan is to buy enough to get started and then buy more as I use them up and have a better idea of how much I need.

I plan to sand mainly wood, for example my next few projects are sanding a book case I'm making from baltic birch plywood and refinishing a maple table.

 

[semenza]

  Welcome to the forum!  [smile]

50 sheets (100) of each or total? If total I'd get 100 so that you can get a broad range and several types. Try to go 40 to 400. But focus on the middle and work your way out into low and high.

  Regardless I suggest getting a broad selection 10 each for the middle grits (100 - 180) and 5 each at the high and low ends. As you use them you will quickly find which ones to buy in whole boxes.

    Many will say get Granat for everything. I still prefer Rubin and Brilliant on bare wood. I like Granat for sanding finishes, paint. I like Cristal for material removal but it is discontinued.  To simplify you might want to try Rubin for the middle grits and Granat for the low and high.

Seth

 

[CoastRedwood]

  Welcome to the forum!  [smile]

50 sheets (100) of each or total? If total I'd get 100 so that you can get a broad range and several types.

  Regardless I suggest getting a broad selection 10 each for the middle grits (100 - 180) and 5 each at the high and low ends. As you use them you will quickly find which ones to buy in whole boxes.

    Many will say get Granat for everything. I still prefer Rubin and Brilliant on bare wood. I like Granat for sanding finishes, paint. I like Cristal for material removal but it is discontinued.  To simplify you might want to try Rubin for the middle grits and Granat for the low and high.

Seth

50 or 100 sheets total. I’m a hobbyist who will be doing a project every month or two so I suspect  even 50 sheets of each would last me a very long time .

Thanks for the advice! I will take a closer look at the Rubin. It sounds like you would not recommend skipping any grits? Is that on the basis that it’s better to do shorter sessions of more grits and doesn’t take long to swap them?

 

[semenza]

  Welcome to the forum!  [smile]

50 sheets (100) of each or total? If total I'd get 100 so that you can get a broad range and several types.

  Regardless I suggest getting a broad selection 10 each for the middle grits (100 - 180) and 5 each at the high and low ends. As you use them you will quickly find which ones to buy in whole boxes.

    Many will say get Granat for everything. I still prefer Rubin and Brilliant on bare wood. I like Granat for sanding finishes, paint. I like Cristal for material removal but it is discontinued.  To simplify you might want to try Rubin for the middle grits and Granat for the low and high.

Seth

50 or 100 sheets total. I’m a hobbyist who will be doing a project every month or two so I suspect  even 50 sheets of each would last me a very long time .

Thanks for the advice! I will take a closer look at the Rubin. It sounds like you would not recommend skipping any grits? Is that on the basis that it’s better to do shorter sessions of more grits and doesn’t take long to swap them?

No, I do skip fairly often in practice. But having the range makes it easy to pick what grit you need for a particular task. If you get a broad selection it will help you decide what you will use the most for various things. And let you try different grits for various tasks to see what you like best.

Most of my sanding on wood is done with 150 and 180. 100 or 120 if the starting surface is a little rougher. I rarely use the 220 or 240 and in my opinion they are close enough together that you really only need one or the other.  320 or 400 on finishes between coats. 40 - 80 for removing lots of wood or stripping.

Seth

 

[Crazyraceguy]

For the immediate project, the Baltic Birch, the range is going to be pretty limited. Itis already sanded to somewhere around 100-120, so you are not really doing anything but removing "handling damage" (scuffs/scrapes) and refining from there.  Depending on your final finish, there may not be much need to go beyond that. 150-180? Most stains don't want a finer grit. You are somewhat polishing/burnishing beyond that point and the stain has nothing to land in/adhere to.
The topcoat may require something finer though, 320-400, if there is a need to sand between coats. Some finishes do not need this though.

40-60-80 will just destroy the veneer and are not need here. Those are for much heavier removal/shaping on solid wood.
Above 400 is for "polishing" of film finishes or plastic and metal parts

 

[rvieceli]

Like Seth, I like Rubin for bare wood but Granat is nice as well.

I don’t want to get into an argument  [big grin] but I almost always follow Allan Litlle’s (askwoodman) advice on “sanding the sequence”
https://vsctools.com/important-sanding-tip-for-all-woodworkers/

Start at 80, 100 120 150 180 220 and I usually go to 320. Works very well for me

Ron

 

[Michael Kellough]

Over time I’ve ended up with nearly every grit made but in practice I find that to be more productive I can safely jump 50% in grit count. For example from 100 to 150 to 220.

As C.R.G. pointed out above what range you need depends on what finish you will use. If it’s varnish you might be able to stop at 180 or so. So if I started with Baltic birch and I planned to finish with varnish/polyurethane I’d start at with 120 (if the surface is in good condition) and finish with 180. Quick.

If it’s oil you’ll likely want to go to 320 or higher but if jumping 50% between grits you have to be especially scrupulous in cleaning/removing all residue before moving to the next grit.

If you’ll add stain before the finish you’ll have to do some tests to find the right grit to prepare for the stain.