When it comes time to sand your newly built project, you will need to get a game plan together on how you plan to accomplish this. One of the dilemmas you may be faced with, especially early on in your woodworking journey, is what type of sanding you need to use. Do you use a power sander, hand sanding, or some combination of both?
Power sanding first, followed by hand sanding is the best approach. Power sanding can efficiently sand the bulk of your project, but will leave scratches on the wood. Following up by hand sanding will eliminate these scratches and allow you to get into the intricate details of your project where the power sander can’t reach.
Each project you take on, is going to require different levels of power and hand sanding and will need to be adjusted accordingly. Keep reading below as we dive into this topic a bit more and help you get a better understanding of when you should use each style of sanding. Feel free to jump ahead to the relevant section using the table of contents below.
Table of Contents
- How to Determine the Type of Sanding You Need to Use on Your Project
- What Power Sanders You Should Use and When to Use Them
- Useful Tools for Hand Sanding
How to Determine the Type of Sanding You Need to Use on Your Project
In general, you will want to combine power sanding with hand sanding to achieve optimal results efficiently. All this means is that you will make the best use of your time by using a power sander to get the wood roughly 90% of the way to being completely sanded, and then use hand sanding to finish out sanding your project to make it look great when it comes time to apply the stain.
The reality of sanding is that each project will have its own challenges and there are all kinds of different surfaces that you will sand. I can’t cover all of the possibilities because numerous combinations can exist. Instead, we will look over some general categories that you can apply to different aspects of your project.
I have provided a table for quick reference, but for more detail you should keep reading to learn more.
| Surface Type | Power Sanding | Hand Sanding |
| Large Flat Surface | First 90% | Last 10% |
| Edges of Project | 0% | 100% |
| Intricate Details | 0% | 100% |
| Inside Corners | First 90% | Last 10% |
Large Flat Surfaces
- First 90% of sanding, use power sander.
- Last 10% of sanding, use hand sanding
The majority of power sanders excel at large flat surfaces. Use a power sander to get your project through the low and medium grit to save time. Switch over to hand sanding with fine grit for the remainder of the sanding on the surface. This will help eliminate any scratches left over from the power sander.
Edges of Project
- For 100% of sanding, use hand sanding
You should use hand sanding for the edges of your project because it is very easy to round off the edge of your project with a power sander. Your best bet is to just leave this to hand sanding so that you have more control, and if you go over the edge a bit, it won’t completely ruin your project. If you go over the edge with a power sander, you can kiss the nice clean edge goodbye.
Intricate Details
- For 100 % of sanding, use hand sanding.
Hand sanding is your best option if you have intricate details on your project. A power sander can’t handle the details and curves you can with hand sanding. You can devise special tools to allow you to get into all the tight spots that a power sander wouldn’t dare go into. We will get more into that in the next section.
Intricate details could be decorative trim, router cuts, or any other small cut that cannot fit a large power sander.
Inside Corners
- First 90%, use Power Sander
- Last 10%, use Hand Sanding
When sanding the inside corners of your project, there are many different ways this can go. If the corner won’t be seen, you could go for 100% power sanding. However, depending on the type of sander you have, you might not be able to sand inside corners. This is where a detail sander would come in handy with its triangular sanding head.
What Power Sanders You Should Use and When to Use Them
There are a few main types of power sanders on the market today and each one has a task they work best at. We will review the uses of some of the most popular tools and when you should implement them in your project.
Belt Sander
The belt sander is an effective tool for removing large amounts of material and should only be used when dealing with fairly rough lumber. This tool is excellent at preparing your lumber for some of the other types of sanders you will be using.
It is very aggressive in its material removal, so you do need to be careful to not remove too much material when using it. It is also imperative that you sand only with the grain. If you sand against the grain with this type of sander, it can create deep scratches that will take a lot of work to remove.
Palm Sander
A palm sander is not as aggressive as a belt sander and can be used for a lot of your light-duty sanding needs. It is an orbiting sander and can leave swirls in your workpiece, so it is probably best to look at the random orbital sander when sanding larger flat surfaces that may be noticeable after applying stain.
However, a palm sander can work just fine if that is the only tool you have, it would just be a good idea to go over the surface with a final hand sanding pass.
The palm sander does well for detail work due to it’s smaller size and tight orbiting pattern. It is also lightweight and easy to control.
Random Orbital Sander
The random orbital sander is an orbiting sander similar to the palm sander, but it also orbits in a random elliptical pattern which makes swirls and scratches much less noticeable. It is a favorite amongst many woodworkers, myself included.
If you use it correctly, the scratches left from the sander will not be noticeable to the naked eye and can serve as a final pass sander depending on the project. However, if you are wanting to take your project to the next level, I would still recommend a final hand sanding pass.
If you would like to read a bit more on the random orbital sander, you can check out my other article here. I go into more detail of sanding with a random orbital sander and some common issues when using one.
Detail Sander
The detail sander is basically a palm sander but with a triangular head. This sander is perfect for inside corners or any tight spot where the other sanders can’t go very easily.
I would only use this sander when performing detail sanding or when there is just a tight spot that needs the smaller footprint or the triangular sanding head. Its smaller size makes it fairly inefficient when doing a lot of sanding.
Useful Tools for Hand Sanding
When you hand sand your project, you really should be using a variety of tools to help you accomplish this. They will make the whole process go much smoother (no pun intended).
Contour Sanding Grips
A helpful tool to have is a contour sanding grip. They are fairly cheap and come in a variety of sizes and profiles. These help you get into very detailed portions of your project including different router profiles you may be using or any kind of decorative trim.
Sanding Block
The first item I would recommend for a new woodworker is a sanding block. They will drastically reduce the sanding time of large flat surfaces. It’s also helpful to have it for grip. You can put a lot of pressure behind a sanding block and have quite a bit of control as well.
Custom Sanding Block
A custom sanding block can be made from the mating pieces of wood that you cut, foam blocks cut to the correct profile, and just about anything you can think of. You can get creative in finding different ways to sand those fine details on your project.
Check out the video below for a great demonstration on making your own custom sanding block.
Conclusion
It is not a battle between which type of sanding you should use, but more of an understanding of WHEN you should do each type of sanding. Power sanding and hand sanding both have their place, and getting a great understanding of when you should be using a specific type of sanding will come with time and experience. This guide is just that, a guide. It is designed to get you pointed in the right direction to figure out for yourself what will work best for you and your project.
