Am I the only one who spent years sanding in the wrong direction?

Tbh I've been building cabinets for about 8 years now and I just realized last month I was always sanding with the grain on face frames but going against it on the plywood panels. A customer pointed it out after he saw some weird scratch marks on a kitchen job I did in March. I felt like such an idiot when I looked closer and saw tiny cross-grain scratches everywhere. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple thing like sanding direction just clicked way later than it should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charlie1mo ago

Gonna play devil's advocate here and say maybe nobody even notices but you. @phoenix_carter's right that it sucks but I've seen jobs where guys sanded every which way and the finish still looked fine from three feet away. Cross-grain scratches catch light weird but most people just see "shiny wood" and move on with their day.

gibson.elizabeth21d ago

Aw man, that reminds me of the time my buddy @the_charlie tried to refinish an old coffee table and ended up with a finish that looked like a cat ran across it with wet paws. He tried to claim it was "artistic texture" but we all saw the shame in his eyes. Every time the light hit it just right, you could see the chaos underneath. Thing is though, you're right that most people walk right past stuff like that without a second glance unless they're specifically looking for flaws. It's like when you notice a smudge on your own glasses and nobody else can see it. So yeah, maybe the cross-grain scratches are a tragedy only the person who made them can really appreciate.

phoenix_carter1mo agoTop Commenter

Dude that SUCKS but honestly I've made that exact same mistake and it's embarrassing as hell.