Finally realized I was sanding in the wrong direction for 2 years

I was refinishing a table last weekend and kept getting these weird scratches that wouldn't come out no matter how fine of grit I used. My dad walked over, looked at it for like 5 seconds, and said 'you know you gotta go with the grain, right?' I thought I was but I guess I was just doing random circles this whole time. Felt pretty dumb. Has anyone else had a basic technique click way later than it should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

terrybennett12d ago

Your dad probably saved you from going crazy with that one. I did the same thing on a dresser a few years back but with orbital sanding patterns instead of circles, thought I was being thorough but really just making a mess of the grain.

jake_owens12d ago

You ever try sanding a curved piece of furniture with the grain... that one took me a while too. I finally just started marking the grain direction with a pencil before I even pick up the sandpaper, saves a lot of headache.