Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [sanding]

176 questions
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What grit sandpaper should I use between coats of polyurethane?

I'm planning on applying polyurethane to a pine bench I've finished staining. I decided on foam brushes for application, but I wasn't sure what grit sandpaper I should use between coats. Is 400 good enough? Or should I use 600? Or both? Also, if…
Doresoom
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Paint-stripping purgatory - stuck in the middle - what should we do?

My wife was prepping our kitchen to be painted this weekend in our 1920's era condominium. Presumably lead paint is present but we do wear masks when working. There's an old door and door frame, and an old wooden window frame in one corner of the…
OldCondo
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Is it appropriate to sand a hardwood floor with a 20, 60, 100 grit sequence?

I went to Home Depot to rent a Square Buff Floor Sander to refinish my Kitchen floor. They said I could use 20, 60, 100 grit sandpapers to do the job. Please note that they do not have any sandpapers of grits of 30, 36, or 40. The floor is 35…
Bruce
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Chipped floor planks keep snagging my socks

In my home office, there are parts of the floor that seem to be chipped off. Their pointy edges keep catching my socks when I walk by. How would you solve this problem? Ideally the solution would not just solve the sock-snagging problem but also…
Ryan
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How is sandpaper quality determined?

In chat today, Karl mentioned that there's a very large disparity in sandpaper quality. Now, I knew about grit differences (they refer to the fineness of the grain, iirc) but literal quality? So, how is sandpaper quality determined? What makes a…
Aarthi
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How to SLIGHTLY widen bored hole in 2x6

I'm making a stand-alone pullup bar and I bored 1 1/4" holes in 2x6's for my 1" galvanized pipe (1 1'4" outside) to slide through. Only the pipe is definitely 1 5/16" (thank you, guy at Lowes) and I can barely thread the first 1/2" of it with all my…
Tom G.
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How can I fit a glass cooktop hood into a space that's too tight?

I have just purchased a new glass cooker hood which is 600mm wide. The gap I have for it is also 600mm wide, though perhaps 599.9mm as it is currently a very snug fit. I am a little worried that the glass will break! The gap available for the new…
James Geddes
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What tools and techniques are available for sanding without machinery?

I am planning on creating a table made out of recycled wood planks and I am wondering if it is too ambitious to hand sand the wood planks without the use of machinery. I am on a budget and am wondering what types of tools would be best to hand sand…
O_O
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How soon can we stain a freshly-sanded deck after it got drenched in the rain?

My family and I are refinishing our deck. We live in area with wild weather so, even though it called for a week of sun, immediately after finishing sanding our deck (to a very beautiful underneath) it got drenched from rain. It took 5 people 3…
Patrick
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How can I plane the edges of plywood?

I'm working on an 8ft x 12ft climbing wall. I have 3/4 inch ACX plywood attached to a frame. Since the frame isn't perfectly square, the plywood overlaps on the edges (up to about 1cm) so I need to shave it down. What's the best tool for the job? I…
balexand
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Should I use an orbital sander or a belt sander for sanding a section of varnished floor?

I need to sand down a small section of our floor and thought I'd buy a small sander instead of renting one for the day. I've been looking at orbital and belt sanders. In particular the two models I was looking at are as…
SeanJ
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How to rescue exterior door paint job?

I have a newly installed exterior metal paneled door that was still dirty when painted. Also embedded in the paint job are bits of foam rubber from the brush, lint from a paint roller and hair from an exuberant dog. Oil paint was used because this…
danludwig
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How can I remove tiny dust particles from the air?

As a basic prep step before I painted, I sanded some of my walls. Later, I cleaned the area and swept up any visible dust particles. Now however, a member of my family is having difficulty breathing when they spent any length of time in an adjoining…
Jim G.
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Should we sand and prime holes in our walls or pay someone to do it?

We just had our 1,000-square-foot house insulated with blown-in insulation. Now we have 180 patched-up holes in our interior walls that need be sanded and primed before we repaint. The holes themselves are about two inches in diameter; the plaster…
Kirk Franklin
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What do the letters mean in sandpaper grading?

I have a set of sandpapers that has the following papers: 60 AN 100 GB 120 DN 180 FB All have the marking S/C/W/P paper T9 C Closed. These are all paper sheets. I know that the number is the grain size. What do the other markings mean? Especially…
Juha
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