# How do I get these scratches out?



## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

Hi there folks. I haven't posted in a while, but I have a couple of pieces I need help with. First, I turned this bowl that _I think _is walnut with a LOT of figure. This has so much curl that when I went to sand the bottom after taking off the sacrificial foot I started sanding perpendicular to the grain thinking that the curl was the grain. ANYWAY, I sanded and sanded on this piece and I never could get these two spots off of the side (it is on the outside and on the inside in the same place).

There is no finish on this piece, but I did buff it with my Beale buffing system.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

philland said:


> Hi there folks. I haven't posted in a while, but I have a couple of pieces I need help with. First, I turned this bowl that _I think _is walnut with a LOT of figure. This has so much curl that when I went to sand the bottom after taking off the sacrificial foot I started sanding perpendicular to the grain thinking that the curl was the grain. ANYWAY, I sanded and sanded on this piece and I never could get these two spots off of the side (it is on the outside and on the inside in the same place).
> 
> There is no finish on this piece, but I did buff it with my Beale buffing system.


On my new monitor I just can not discern the scratches very well. But if you buffed before you got the scratches out it sounds like you went to fine before the scratches were blended into the surface. You probably have to sand again starting with a much coarser grit and sand and sand until the scratches are blended then work your way up through the grits to buffing. I wish I could see the scratches better.


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## Glenmore (Sep 10, 2004)

Sanding use a coarser grit and work you way through the finer grits. That will eliminate the scratches.


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## chippypah (Dec 24, 2007)

Thats right my old friend, start with course and work through the graded untill done.
Cheers
Pete


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Pretty nice looking bowl out of some great looking wood. Gotta love walnut.

I agree that starting with say 80 grit and going to 320 grit for a bowl is fine. One thing is a must is do not skip any grits and blow the dust off before starting with the next grit. What you have is end grain tearout which is what it looks like to me from the pictures. While sanding at the course grits one thing you could do is to spritz it with a fine mist of water on those spots and sand. Another thing is to put a lite coat of wax or mineral oil on those spots and sand. If it is off the lathe that is going to be hard and tedious work. If the scratches or tear out are on the very bottom you could make a donut chuck or if you have some cole jaws, stick it back on the lathe and finish the bottom which would make it a lot easier. If the tearout is on the side well that probably should have been finished before it came off the lathe. Make sure your turnings are finished (turning/sanding) no matter if you finish it on the lathe or off. 

The cracks are pretty easy as you can use CA (super glue) and if the crack is a little wider than a hairline crack fill it with sawdust and the put on your super glue. You could fill it with epoxy and inlace or epoxy and sanding dust.

Hope that helps.


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## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

Well, I think that I just wasn't aggressive enough with the 60 grit. The areas are actually defects in the wood, and this walnut is SOOOO hard. I actually think that they were hiding under the dust, and I just kept right on sanding and just missed them. I did use 60, 100, 150, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000. I just didn't do enough at the 60 stage. Alas. I guess that I can put it in the Cole Jaws and put a bit of pressure with the tailstock (well padded of course). How does that sound?


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## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

Thanks Bernie, those are some good words.


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

I would do just that. Make a jam chuck for your livecenter and put a pad on it. Bring it up with a little pressure. You should be able to sand it out nicely. You don't need to put a lot of pressure on your sand paper. Let it do the work because if you put a lot of pressure on the paper it can burnish the wood and make it even harder to sand. Now this is just me and my opinion only but I think it is a waste of time to go much past 320 or 400 grit as I found out. Al Stirt, Ernie Conover and Mike Mahoney after watching them do demo's told me that I was wasting my time going above those because you are just burnishing the wood and some finsihes don't like burnished surfaces. I was sanding up to 4000 grit. I stop most of my sanding on most any piece except for pens at 320 or 400. One way to check and see how you did sanding is to wipe the piece down before you take it off the lathe with mineral spirits. It will definitely show you if there are any sanding marks. If I find there is I go back to 150 or 180 using light pressure and work my way up blowing the piece with compressed air to clean off the previous dust before starting with the next grit. If you don't clean the piece off before going to the next grit that in itself can cause problems. 

Hope this helps.


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## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

I have learned some good stuff today. Thanks Bernie.


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Your very welcome.


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## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

*The fixed version*

OK. I fixed it. It took a LOT of work but I finally got it right. I think it turned out well.

You can really see the curl in the picture of the bottom.


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## dovetail_65 (Jan 22, 2008)

Sweet!!!


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Great job. Sometimes a little extra time sure does make the piece and you did just that. Well done.


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## philland (Oct 3, 2008)

Bernie,
The key was actually what you said about burnishing. A lot of what I had there was build up that was burnished on. I looked at the sandpaper that I had used and every grit had the burnished built up area on it. I used some mineral spirits and a lot of that stuff melted away. Then I was able to sand it.


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

That is great. I am happy I could be of some help. It surely is a different looking bowl and is a beauty. I use mineral spirits to wipe down the surface of my turnings to see how my sanding looks. You can see if you have any sanding grooves using it.


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