Anyone who’s spent a lot of time on a woodworking project knows the thrill of finally sanding it to a glassy smoothness. Then you stain, polish, and seal it, or otherwise put on the finishing touches, to bring out the full beauty of what you’ve created and to protect it. It’s as if those final steps bring all of your labor to life, and seal in all of the time, effort, and pride you put into your work. Certain kinds of finishing processes can be a little scary (if you mess them up, you can ruin all of your hard work), but there is no greater feeling of accomplishment than when you finish these final steps. Here are a few extremely useful tips that will help make your sanding and finishing chores go more smoothly with better results.

Making Your Own Custom Sanding Grips

Bob Clagett of I Like to Make Stuff offered this brilliant tip on how to 3D print custom sanding grips. Using 3D design software, you can quickly design grips that conform to a specific surface on your project. If you have designed and printed the thing you’re wanting to sand, you can even use the negative space information to create grips designed to sand inside of tough places. And as Bob points out, since resolution doesn’t mean much here, you can print at the lowest resolution to accelerate the print time.

DIY Containment Box

You can easily make a simple containment box to prevent dust and small particles from escaping into the room when you’re sanding small items. Basically all you need is a cardboard box, some old rubber gloves, a few layers of plastic wrap, and masking tape.

Storing Sanding Disks

Use an old, zipper CD storage case to store sanding disks for your hand sander.

Getting Rid of Wood Dents with Water

If you discover any dents from clamp teeth, or other minor deformations, when you are getting ready to sand a piece of wood, put a small bit of water on the dent. The water will make the grain of the wood swell and smooth out the dent. When it’s dry, you can sand as normal. This tip was shared by Bobby on the Bobby Duke Arts YouTube channel. [BD]

Mask around Wood Filler

Wood filler can stain the wood when you go to finish it. To prevent this, mask both sides of the join with painter’s tape and then apply your filler. [JD]

Using a Glove to Preserve a Working Brush

Jon, of the YouTube channel FarmCraft101, reminds us that you can temporarily cover a paint or stain brush by inverting your disposable glove over the brush between coats. You can also stretch the other glove over the can. This allows you to take a break without having to clean the brush or reseal the paint can.

Branding Wood with Ammonium Chloride

This great tip comes to us from German maker Laura Kampf. First, you mix a simple solution of ammonium chloride and water (1 tbsp of ammonium chloride to 3.4 ounces of water). Next, apply it to the wood—you can paint it on, put it on using a rubber stamp, or load it into a marking pen and write on the wood. Then you activate it by using a heat gun until you see your image “burn in.” As Laura points out, it’s a little funkier than traditional branding, but for many applications, it’s good enough. [LK]