# How to remove planer marks/sand wood fast as possible?



## WilkersonsCreations (Mar 2, 2016)

Hey guys

I make a lot of rustic type furniture. Sanding is by far the longest/time consuming thing involved. Not to mention it's crazy boring. I'm trying to speed up my current process.

I use 2x12 boards a lot for furniture and they always have planer marks running in the opposite direction of the grain. The only reason I even sand the wood is to remove these planer marks. Since my style is 'rustic', i'm not too worried about getting a super smooth result. I just want to remove the planer marks. Anyone have advice on how I could remove these planer marks/sand the woods surface quickly with little to no effort? 

I was thinking sand blasting maybe? But isn't that usually used to remove old finish/paint?



insight appreciated.


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## Jesse Blair (Oct 9, 2016)

Short of expensive equipment, a random orbit sander and a stack of pads, and elbow grease is the easiest way. A drum sander would make it quick and easy, if you feel like dropping $1000+ on one.


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## Brian(J) (Feb 22, 2016)

Jesse Blair said:


> Short of expensive equipment, a random orbit sander and a stack of pads, and elbow grease is the easiest way. A drum sander would make it quick and easy, if you feel like dropping $1000+ on one.


Am I the only one who would rather use a cabinet scraper?


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## WilkersonsCreations (Mar 2, 2016)

Jesse Blair said:


> Short of expensive equipment, a random orbit sander and a stack of pads, and elbow grease is the easiest way. A drum sander would make it quick and easy, if you feel like dropping $1000+ on one.


Yeah I really want a drum sander.. I was thinking about trying to make one.


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## WilkersonsCreations (Mar 2, 2016)

Brian(J) said:


> Am I the only one who would rather use a cabinet scraper?


hmm. Ill have to get one of these maybe.. 

Would you still prefer to use this on multiple 6' long 2x12 boards?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

For a long time I sanded planer marks off with a hand held belt sander. Then finished sanding with a random orbital sander. Now the belt sander I use is a stroke sander. I find it more versatile than a drum sander.


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## WilkersonsCreations (Mar 2, 2016)

Steve Neul said:


> For a long time I sanded planer marks off with a hand held belt sander. Then finished sanding with a random orbital sander. Now the belt sander I use is a stroke sander. I find it more versatile than a drum sander.


I use a belt sander now. It works the best out of anything I've tried but it still gets old when I'm sanding a whole stack of boards.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

WilkersonsCreations said:


> I use a belt sander now. It works the best out of anything I've tried but it still gets old when I'm sanding a whole stack of boards.


True true. Sanding door panels for a set of kitchen cabinets seem to take forever. That is why I bought this 6"x281" belt sander. It sands them quick.


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## WilkersonsCreations (Mar 2, 2016)

Steve Neul said:


> True true. Sanding door panels for a set of kitchen cabinets seem to take forever. That is why I bought this 6"x281" belt sander. It sands them quick.


Nice. I need to get something like that. How much did it cost you? and where did you find it?


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## Rodrat (Aug 31, 2016)

WilkersonsCreations said:


> Hey guys
> 
> I make a lot of rustic type furniture. Sanding is by far the longest/time consuming thing involved. Not to mention it's crazy boring. I'm trying to speed up my current process.
> 
> ...


I find I can hand plane a board down a lot faster than I could sand them. If you have a plane, why not give that a try?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

WilkersonsCreations said:


> Nice. I need to get something like that. How much did it cost you? and where did you find it?


Believe it or not I got that one for $250.00 off ebay. It had been used in a furniture factory I believe in Indiana that closed and someone bought all the machinery and didn't want the stroke sander. The cheapest one they have on ebay today is $3000.00 but I don't care for them anyway. Grizzly has a new one for $1600.00 but I don't like it either. The best made stroke sander is made by Beech. What makes them better is they have four wheels which lifts the belt up farther so you can work it by hand better. It's also made with two separate pedestals so you can set it up farther apart if you need to in order to sand longer lengths. 

Working a stroke sander by hand works a lot better. You make a block which looks like a concrete float and cover the bottom with graphite paper. You litterally push the sanding belt down on the wood to operate it. I also sand the stiles and rails of the cabinet doors with the sander. With practice you leave almost no cross grain scratches to finish sand.


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## Shop_Rat (Dec 22, 2015)

For what you do there is no miracle cure. Scraping will actually leave you with too nice of a finish for a rustic look- like mirror smooth. Sandblasting will only break the surface fibers and leave you with an even worse mess than you started with. A belt sander, whether hand held, drum, or a behemoth like Steve owns, is by far the fastest way to remove the offending chatter marks. If you don't like the speed of stock removal, increase your grit size. 

Google "drum sander plans" for myriad ideas for home built machines. Some of those folks have built some pretty nice sanders. You can get as elaborate as you want with features. But even then you still have to feed each and every board [multiple times] through the thing, and that will take some time... and be boring to boot.

The only other option I see is to locate a better source of material that takes greater care in surface finishing to begin with. 

Yeah, no miracles.


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## difalkner (Nov 27, 2011)

I'm like Brian - a sharp cabinet scraper can do wonders pretty fast and with the control that allows you to only take the high spots you want. And like Steve, and good stroke sander is an awesome tool that I would have if I had room.


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## Brian(J) (Feb 22, 2016)

WilkersonsCreations said:


> hmm. Ill have to get one of these maybe..
> 
> Would you still prefer to use this on multiple 6' long 2x12 boards?


Well, probably not if it had rough planer marks. I'm spoiled by my Felder/Hammer combo machine. The planer is so smooth that I go the other way and plane off sander marks sometimes, it's so much faster than sanding.
After that scraping it is pretty quick.

The machine, a three motor 3hp TS/Joiner/Planer/Shaper(with router spindle installed) and the results:


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## Brian(J) (Feb 22, 2016)

difalkner said:


> I'm like Brian - a sharp cabinet scraper can do wonders pretty fast and with the control that allows you to only take the high spots you want. And like Steve, and good stroke sander is an awesome tool that I would have if I had room.


Yes, a stroke sander would be so nice................


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

took me a long time to learn that 'quick&easy' in the sanding department does not start with a fine grit. now that I've about greased out my elbow(s), I use a more aggressive grit followed by a medium then by a fine. the exact grit depends on the wood species as well as 'how bad it is' at the start.

I got a spiral thickness planer - it is seriously better that ye' olde' standard full width knives. it puts my old 3-knife joiner to shame in terms of divots per inch. the spiral has zero....it's a challenge to force meself into (orbital) fine sanding the final pass - 

the biggest 'marks' on the spiral planer output are irregularly polished grain lines from pressure of / on the non-cutting aka bottom platen side... I cringe every time I'm forced into using the old 3-knife joiner. should probably get a new one . . .


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## tjdux (Feb 3, 2017)

Have you thought about getting a cheap HF planer to run them through? I know building grade lumber can be super rough even when planed by the manufacturer. An actual proper planer for hardwoods may gove decent results. Or at least less chatter.

Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703


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## Larry42 (Jan 10, 2014)

A cabinet scraper is faster than an orbital assuming you know how to sharpen & use it. A stoke sander is far better than a cheap drum sander and will allow much better finishes.


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## Catpower (Jan 11, 2016)

I love my stroke sander, damn it will remove the wood


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