Sanding and finishing timber slabs

[BDL]

G'day all, I have just picked up a nice slab of silky oak and I would like to make a bar top out of it. I havn't worked with timber slabs before any tips on sanding would be appreciated, I am happy to put in the time and sand by hand, can anyone recommend types and grades of sand paper i should use.

Thanks.

BDL

[conwood]

bdl,
I recently made a table with two slabs of satinwood joined, which I will post on this forum soon. I spent over 20 hours finishing.

I used a random orbital sander thru all grits- 40 60 80 120 180 240. Before I started with 40g I wet the top to raise the grain and let it dry thoroughly then sanded with 40g. Did this twice. When drying I ran my hand over the whole surface and found low and high spots. (more these imperfections later)

Then I applied urethane (cos I had some dregs lying around) to seal the slabs then hit it with the 40g.I did this twice. Now I could see and feel any imperfections.

I then went thru the grits, sometimes applying wet cloth so I could feel and imperfections.

At 120 grit I just went thru the grits constantly feeling the timber as I went, right thru to 240g. Then hand sanded with soft block with 320g and 400g.

For the finish I used a tung oil resin mix F&W floor finish. I selected this cos being a floor product it would be quite hard and take a few plates and cups etc.

I hand applied (not rubbed) the finish in continuous strokes. After three such applications (with very minor rubs of 1000g in between, we were looking good, then on the forth the finish was starting to look real good..french polish like, then I spotted two minor imperfections. The higher the finish the more imperfections rear their ugly heads. I was shattered, so I resanded the while thing and started again.

Anyway, eventually after about 10 hand applications I had a beautiful finish in which you could see your face in.. a soft deep lustre. My project was a 4.5k commission.

That's what I did. If you are going for a similar finish I suggest you seal the silky oak. I hope you enjoy hand sanding, cos you have lots of it to do. Have fun.

cheers
conwood

[old pete]

Hi BDL,

First of all is the slab free of twist. If not you will have to flatten one side then thickness it and then get to work on the sanding. There will be someone nearby with a slabmaster who can flatten your slab if need be. It there is only a little twist then flatten it yourself with a pair of winding sticks and a hand held power plane.Then take it to a joinery with a 600mm thicknesser

I wouldn't mess about with sanding. When you have the slab flat and thicknessed take it to a joinery and have them put it through a wide belt sander on 80 grit until you have all the machining marks removed. You can remove 0. 2 mm or 0.3 mm every 15 seconds or so and that equates to one hell of a lot of hand sanding where I live. If the joinery folk have not lost patience with you they can put it through once at 100 grit and then 150 grit but there is a bit of palaver changing the belts to do that unless you strike folk with a twin belt sander where you can lift the second belt until finished with the first.

Take plenty of old blankets with you so you can get it home in the condition it came out of the sander. I guess you might want to continue with hand sanding to 320 or even 400 grit. Use a sanding float and do the job manually. Start by annointing the surface with a light pencil scroll work with a 2B pencil all over Sand that all off and then do it again and again. DON'T focus on a defect and give it extra attention by sanding deeper there. That will show up just so clearly when you get up a very high grade polish. Good luck. Take the steps to make life easy then you can get on to the next project! old pete

[Afro Boy]

Just found this thread as I'm after something similar.

BDL, what are you going to be doing with your slab? I have a heap of English Elm (from ARTs recent auction) and I want to get some of the slabs thicknessed or sanded - not sure which. Some have a little bit of a twist in them.

Anyone down the Mornington Peninsula side of town that has this type of equipment?

Cheers,
Af.