That moment I realized I'd been sanding wrong for 10 years

I was at a shop in Cincinnati last month, helping a buddy with some custom kitchen cabinets. He watched me sanding a face frame and just goes, 'You're using way too much pressure, you're just making the scratch pattern deeper.' I'd been leaning into it hard my whole career, thinking I was getting it done faster. Sure enough, I backed off and the finish came out way smoother on the next piece. Anyone else have a basic habit they had to unlearn way later than they should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.quinn3d ago

Man I feel this so hard it hurts. I spent like 8 years sanding drywall with a pole sander and I was basically trying to punch a hole through the wall every time. My shoulder was always sore, my arms were dead tired at the end of the day, and the finish looked like crap. Then an old timer just laughed at me and showed me how to let the paper do the work with barely any pressure. Felt like an absolute idiot standing there with my mouth open. What other little tricks got past you for way too long?

evaperez3d ago

@robinson.quinn the one that got me was learning that you're not supposed to push down on a utility knife blade when cutting drywall, just let the weight of the knife do it. I was out here wrestling with every cut like it was a fight and my hand was killing me. A guy at the supply house watched me once and just handed me a new blade, said "let it glide." Changed my whole life (and my hand stopped hurting too).