My Right Shoulder Hurts....

[T2W]

Do you guys really sand your basses all by hand? I was just waxing my bass yesterday
(nothing compared to sanding down to 2000grit) and my shoulder started to hurt. You use a orbital sander or another marvelous machine? Did I miss something?

[Rodent]

220 grit in thru the thickness sander, and then all by hand from there

in the case of a body getting sprayed, 220 is fine enough

in the case of anything getting an oil finish, it's 600 or 1200 grit depending

all the best,

R

[scottyd]

Air dual action all the way!

[tjclem]

Originally Posted by Rodent

220 grit in thru the thickness sander, and then all by hand from there

in the case of a body getting sprayed, 220 is fine enough

in the case of anything getting an oil finish, it's 600 or 1200 grit depending

all the best,

R

You do go down to 220 in the thickness sander? I was afraif it would end up burnishing the bass more than sanding it..t

[Rodent]

Originally Posted by tjclem

You do go down to 220 in the thickness sander? I was afraif it would end up burnishing the bass more than sanding it..t

this is where practice and experience come in, as the same speed and pressure don't work globally for all woods ... and it also varies from one maple top to the next. while you're thicknessing after your bookmatch glue-up, you should get a pretty good feel for how the top is going to react while you're making that 180 grit pass. if it wants to burn real easy at 150 grit, I may just stop at 180. for a waxy wood like Cocobolo, it may not be possible to reach 180 without completely plugging up your abrasive cloth

and fwiw, I use a Performax 22-44 ... I'm sure different models/brands of thickness sanders will behave slightly different from each other due to their design

all the best,

R