Tag Archive | sanding

Quick Tip {Sanding Blocks}

Hi all! I hope that it is as beautiful in your neck of the woods as it is here in Ohio! The weather has been absolutely unbelievable. With all this beautifulness (boy, the spell checker is going bonkers with that word) I’m sure you have been throwing around the idea of getting out the power tools and building. And if you are, you will certainly be getting out the sand paper because it is an unavoidable part of the building process.

Have you ever priced the sanding blocks at the stores? I have. And they never end up in my cart at the checkout line because of that. The Hubs and I differ a bit in that area–we are both pretty thrifty, but when it comes to home improvement projects, he doesn’t balk at getting things that might be helpful, whereas I tend to “make do” without them. So that is how I ended up with some ready-made sanding blocks–they came home with him from the store

The ready-made version were great and is it my imagination, or do they seem to last longer without getting clogged up? Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money when they began to look like this:

This is an incredibly easy quick tip. Just cut a full sheet of sandpaper into fourths.

And crease the edges up at the edge of the ready-made block.

I’m almost embarrassed to post this, it is so easy. Almost. I don’t attach it in any way and it stays in place fine just by gripping the sides.

Don’t have a worn-out sanding block to use and don’t want to buy one? You can still make some really cheap DIY versions. I used this option until I found the ones the Hubs had already bought (I cannot recommend snooping in your husband’s garage stuff highly enough). Use some scrap wood–3/4″ thickness or more. Buy some cheapo craft foam (the kind that they have in the kid’s craft section at Walmart, JoAnn’s, etc.). If you want to be all fancy-schmancy, buy the self-adhesive kind, but I just used some scrap from the craft room. Cut the foam to the size of your scrap wood and use a quarter sheet of the sandpaper wrapped around it. That’s it!

If you can’t get enough of sanding blocks, here are even more options for your consideration:

As far as the kids’ bathroom project non-progress, I am beginning to have hopeful thoughts. I got a little jump of excitement in the belly when I was surfing for inspiration yesterday and it is the first that I’ve gotten that. It is what I have been waiting for, so I hope I can fan that little ember into a roaring fire of motivation. And SOON!!

September 4, 2011

in DIY, Uncategorized, Woodworking
5 Comments

How to get a smooth painted finish

Well I hope that I can remember what I had typed up for this post already. I was just clicking on the full-screen look on my dashboard to check it over before publishing and the post went blank. Yippee. Here goes try #2…

I got a post suggestion from a commenter recently:

I think you should do a post on how to do smooth finishes for painting. I’ve tried to do it on large surfaces but have failed leaving lots of roller or brush marks. Had to sand most of it down but the end result has not been as smooth as yours. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the post suggestion, Dustin! I’ll try to write about the process I use.

I start by sanding down everything with 220 grit. I use my electric finish sander if it is a large amount of flat surface

Pretty in Pink {Pottery Barn knock off bed} The Reveal!!

I love it. I can’t believe I made it!! The drawers work. It is the right size. All the stuff I worried about before I started turned out fine. It isn’t perfect, but remember my motto: Perfect is the enemy of done. And it’s done!

The before:

Painting the dining room table Post 5: FINISHED!…maybe

The table and chairs are finished!!! (maybe) I am so excited!!! (well I was for around 24 hours). Remember what they looked like before:

And the top was very worn:

And now, drumroll please…………….

Taaa Daaaa!! I love, love, love it!!

Ideally I would have loved a dark brown stained piece for this area, but I didn’t want to deal with all that came with staining this particular table. It does go well with the kitchen area because we have a black fireplace insert right next to this table and my kitchen countertops are black as well. Overall I am very satisfied with the results!

I was worried that the top of the table was so worn that I wouldn’t be able to get it smooth again, but thanks to my sanding friend:

It turned out fantastic! I did use this sander on any part I was able to for the table, including the legs. I did have to use hand sanding on the detail parts of the legs, of course.

Here’s a better shot of the smooth, shiny top:

General Finishes recommends being careful with the furniture until the topcoat has a chance to achieve maximum hardness at 14 days. I plan to do just that.

**UPDATE AFTER ONE YEAR OF WEAR AND TEAR**

If I were to do this over, I would probably clean the top of the table with some TSP or other grease removing cleaner. And I would probably use a primer, but just on the table top. I’ve got a few spots that have lifted up when a glass is sitting with condensation pooling around it for a few hours (I’ve said that we are not careful with this table!!). If you use protection for your table, like placemats/tablecloth and you don’t leave glasses dripping on it the entire day, you probably don’t need to take the extra measures. But overall I am still in love with the results from all the work and I would definitely do it over again!

Now, remember that “maybe” in the title?? If you have read the other posts in this series (which you can do–and I recommend you do if you want to learn more about the products and the process I used– if you click on the “Painting the dining room table” category on the right sidebar) you know that I did not paint the bottom of the table because nobody would see it. Well, I got to enjoy that wonderful, incorrect thought for less than 24 hours after I finished the last application of topcoat. I walked up the stairs from our basement and saw this:

&(*&%%*&^$#@@@!#$%^

Now I had my contacts in, so the view was in focus, unlike this picture. But I refuse to retake this shot. I. don’t. want. to. paint. the. bottom. of. the. table.

I think I’m going to end up painting the bottom of the table.

Darn it.

Would love to hear what you would do in my situation–paint or don’t paint??? Once the chair is in its spot, it isn’t as noticeable. My Man doesn’t think I need to worry about it. What about you? What do you think?

Quick recap:

1) Sand the shine down on all pieces you are going to paint. Took about 20 minutes per chair.

2) Used 3 coats of General Finishes milk paint in Lamp Black.

3) Sand lightly with 320 grit.

4) Topcoat with General Finishes High Performance Water Based Topcoat in Satin. Five coats on chairs. Five coats on table legs and sides. Eight coats on top of table. I did not sand between ALL coats of the topcoat as recommended. Some of them I did though. Used 320 grit sandpaper.

5) Need 14 days before the topcoat achieves maximum hardness, so be gentle until then.

**Don’t forget that if you want to learn about the products and process I used for this DIY project, click on the category in the right sidebar titled “Painting the dining room table”. That will bring up all the posts for this series.

Linking this post to these blog parties:

Power of Paint Party at Domestically Speaking

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Passion for Paint at Mural Maker and More

Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tater Tots and Jello

Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Saturday Soiree at A Little Lovely

Remodelaholic Anonymous at Remodelaholic

Catch As Catch Can at My Repurposed Life

Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring

December 27, 2010

Painting the dining room table Post 2

Okay, so I started painting the dining room chairs today. That voice inside my head kept telling me that I should wait until after our New Year’s Eve bash, but I just hummed over it and got out the sandpaper.

I couldn’t find my 120 grit that was recommended (how many places can I stash sandpaper in this house, anyway?) so I ended up sanding off the sheen that managed to survive the last 17 years with 150 grit.

Left is sanded; right is an unsanded comparison.

I didn’t work too hard at knocking down the sheen–at the most it took 20 minutes. But I’m not kidding that a lot of this is worn off already. Remember this pic?

See why this is a necessary project?!

Then I got out the recommended foam brush, stir stick, and drop cloth and went to town with the General Finishes milk paint in Lamp Post black (or Lamp black? can’t remember what the exact name was right now).

Left chair has one coat and right has two.

The directions say to sand between coats with 320 grit after two hours in ideal conditions. I waited the two hours in our 68 degree house with low winter humidity and very lightly sanded before the second coat. For the most part, the second coat finished up the chair. I did have to touch up some areas with a light third coat to completely cover with the black. I really like this paint.

To distress or not to distress…deciding is distressing…

Glazed with General Finishes Red Sienna glaze.

I would have said that I was positive I’d go with the distressed and glazed look before I actually attempted it. I’ll decide for sure once I’ve got some natural light tomorrow, but I’m leaning heavily toward just black with some satin sealer coat on top.

I got three chairs sanded, painted with two coats, and one distressed and glazed as well. I didn’t start until around 2:00 and I cooked dinner in there–so I probably spent roughly 5 hours on it today. That includes a lot of hemhawing about the distressing, taking pictures, and standing and admiring what I had done. I do that a lot during my projects–is that weird?

They look so much better!

November 23, 2010

Leaning Wall Shelves Part 3: Sanding…and sanding…and sanding

Furring strips. They entice you with their unbeatable price, looking beautiful in their perfect bundles of straightness. That is, until you cut one open. I swear, I actually heard a “boing” sound–straight out of the cartoons–when the plastic tie broke open on one particularly warped pack.

And accompanying their lack of conformity to straightness is their rough texture. But as I mentioned in Part 2, I was up for the challenge. At least I was on day 1 of sanding. On day 3 I couldn’t stand up straight and my hand had vibrated into uselessness. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Rough furring strips

Here is my sanding partner. My Man bought this for me when I had to refinish Read More…

November 5, 2010

Refinishing door hardware Part 2: Sanding

Ok, so you gathered up the supply list and now you are ready to jump in. A word of warning: this part is not fun. I did not enjoy this part of the project. But there is a bright side–after we completed a large part of our hardware, we (meaning my brilliant husband) thought of a much easier way to finish it up. Therefore, you will benefit totally Read More…