Pro tip: a guy at the Sacramento shop tour told me to stop sanding past 180 on paint grade, and now I'm second guessing myself | Cabinetmakers - The Community Guide
Pro tip: a guy at the Sacramento shop tour told me to stop sanding past 180 on paint grade, and now I'm second guessing myself
Was at a cabinet shop tour in Sacramento back in March and an old timer named Ray watched me hit a door with 220 before paint. He said anything past 180 just burnishes the wood and makes the primer grab worse, not better. Half my crew says he's nuts and half say they've done it that way for 20 years. What grit are you all stopping at for paint grade doors?
The "burnishes the wood" line sounds made up honestly. I've been spraying paint grade for years and the real issue is scratch pattern, not some magic grit number. Wood doesn't turn to glass at 220, and primer soaks in fine either way if you're not loading it up crazy. Also, Ray is one guy at one shop tour. He could be right for his lacquer and his wood and dead wrong for your setup, so why would you flip your whole process over it. Stop at whatever grit gives you a flat, even surface your primer actually sticks to. Half your crew doing it one way for 20 years just means it's been good enough, not that it's the only way.