Cabinet grade finishing

[dan stanton]

Hi all. Got the day off, so I'd thought I'd share some of my questionable knowledge.
To get a cabinet grade finish here is my process. Start with belt, or palm sanding, 60 grit. Then hand sand, 60 grit, everything. Vacuum, or dust off. Put paint thinner on all surfaces, looking for cross-grain scratches. Re-sand if necessary. As always, sand with the grain. Next using a palm sander, 100 grit. Repeat all steps. Dry thoroughly. Next, wet all surface with water. The harder the wood, the wetter you get it. This raises the grain. (Some finishers add salt or use a brine, but I haven't seen it to make a difference.) Dry thoroughly. Re-sand, 100 grit, by hand, sanding block, or random orbit sander. You should be able to skip the thinner by now. Dust off. Repeat at 150/180 grit, wet, sand, dust. Same for 220 grit. Final sanding should be hand sanding, keeping your strokes end to end. You can go as far down the grit line you want. Dust, then clean with tack cloth.
I very rarely stain, but if I do, I use three coats polyurethane, sanding 220 grit between coats, cleaning with tack cloth .
Usually, I apply sanding sealer, sand 220, tack clean, then three coats polyurethane, sanding 220, tack clean between coats.
I do not use water based stains or finishes, they tend to raise the grain. And I use clear gloss polyurethane.

[DustyJBLs]

Finishing

Hi, everyone. I am new to the forum, and don't want to step on any toes, but would like to comment on the above post. I built high end furniture for many years, and would never bother sanding unfinished wood with anything finer than 220 grit, regardless of species. The guy who I apprenticed with, who truly is a master, taught me to go 60 grit, 80, 120, 220. You spend the majority of the time with the 60 grit, getting out tool marks, planer ripple and other imperfections, and then the finer grits should only have to take out the scratches left by the previous sand paper. Of course sand with the grain, and if you are sanding a veneered panel, be very, very careful with the sixty grit.( veneer shouldn't need that much sanding in the first place.) The trick that I learned, after literally spending entire weeks hand sanding things, is to learn to see the scratches left by the coarser grit, and only sand enough to remove them. You can raise the grain if you want, but if you are not using a water-based finish I wouldn't bother.
I hope this helps someone be done with thier sanding sooner!

[Kazooman]

To each their own. I have been with the woodworking hobby longer than the amp/pedal building hobby. I would agree that with soft woods 220 is fine enough and I do not raise the grain. Several coats of polyurethane can build a surface finish that will disguise many fine scratch marks left from sanding. However, most of the time I work with hard woods such as claro walnut and generally apply hand rubbed oil finishes. I usually go to 600 grit and get a glass smooth surface. Well worth the effort for an expensive piece of wood.

BTW, a belt sander with 60 grit is a powerful wood munching setup! Gotta be very careful with that.

[dan stanton]

Wow, a month and a half later someone responds
As I say, this is my method. And thanks for the input!

[oipunkguy]

I finish furniture for a living as well as finish musical instruments. I've never finished a cabinet, but to me it seems like a lot of extra sanding doesn't seem needed. But I guess it all depends on what you are working with. to do something like cabinet you really could finish it with anything. A poly probably would work great for heavy duty road use, but a gel varnish would be great too. personally I really don't like using poly because how hard it is to strip off if you dont want it anymore, but thats me.

[DustyJBLs]

I could see going finer than 220 for an oil finish, in fact a person I used to share my shop with would always finish up rubbing the last coat of oil in with 400 grit wet or dry paper, and it looked good. I like to use spray laquer for furniture finishing, and haven't seen any sanding scratches through that. For the record, I put my laquer on thin, and rub the top coat out with 4o steel wool so I am not getting that thick glossy look a lot of people assosciate with laquer.

[oipunkguy]

agreed. I usually perfer spray nitro or pre-cat lacquer. on furniture I usually like a pretty thin finish as well, but it also depends on the wood too. for example on maple pieces i find that a thin finish on maple just looks terrible.