Good stuff..........great info for anyone sanding their slab.

I never at all thought of using the orbital for rough or even any use on the slab. And indeed get good paper. 3M and the name brands.

indeed great stuff, piqued my interest but afraid to ruin it.


why orbital sanders vrs square sanders? never had a problem with my belt sander as mention you usually can tell before it goes

The suck part is I did hear the thump-thump-thump......5 out 7 times!!!

The small square Makita orbital that Old Growth refers to, I have that model as well. Pretty useless for big stuff or material removal. OK for small light work. I bought mine YEARS ago, refurb, probably 30 years ago. For like $10

video has emerged of Mike warming up to cut slabs:

https://imgur.com/gallery/Ejs5zgn

A true vibrating orbital sander can take a lot of the work out of rough to medium sanding. They can take the place of coarse and medium sanding blocks (care has to be taken in corners using blocks to even out the sanding though, as the circular Sanders will not take care of these areas).
The advantage to an orbital vs plain vibratory sander is that the orbital tends to leave fewer spiral sanding marks embedded in the substrate left by oversize grains embedded in the sanding pad or debris picked up during sanding. These looping gouges are often invisible until stain is applied to the wood. Once stain is applied, removing these marks often results in blotchy application of the stain.
Using a sander is faster than block sanding, and can provide a more uniform surface treatment than hand sanding for these grits (barring wide format planer sanders or a something like a 250" stroke sander with sliding bed) on larger flat areas. I have found that final prep sanding should be done by hand, with full length strokes in the direction of the wood fibers using medium to fine grits.
Personally, if I was sanding a slab, and had access, I would use a wide format belt sander/planer for relatively straight grained woods or a long format stroke sander for more complicated figuring which would allow more control when trying to equally flatten a slab with differing areas of hardness, such a knotty or figured panels.

GREAT post.

I just realized my completed sanding pics and stuff are GONE!!!

I finished sanding the small cedar slab. Will still do some hand sanding before finishing:





Here are the belt and orbital sanders. 4x24 Belt sander I added a carbon plate. I also have a Porter cable 3x21





Belt cleaner

Look great Pablo!
Dust mask CHECK
Sanders CHECK
Make wood beautiful... CHECK

Already planning the next project---a 10' slab of Black Walnut donated by PMB, this one with a finished length of 9 feet by 2" thick for the MT home.
I have 5 months to start/finish it!
Our subcontract Cabinet builder will build a Kitchen Island box for us.

Live edge UP or DOWN??? What's your opinion, wood slayers?



Ref slabs, LEFT slab is what is being used for kitchen island

Live edges down. Don't lose all of the real surface area by putting the edges up.
You would regret it.

That's my gravitation as well.
But DAMN the live edge has history! Titties! and even worm trenches!

Maybe plane it down to 1 1/2 inches to gain surface area and then go live edge up?

I prefer to use them with the live edge up and displayed but those pieces you have are pretty narrow and if displayed that way will not be very efficient and will seem very small.

Just my .02

It really depends on the slab, your use (pure practical, pure looks balance) AND where it will be. Just my inclination but all outdoor wood get live edge to the sky.

Perhaps PMB has a better cut of black walnut (recent) he would like to sell?

It will be show cased in the Parade of Homes in Kalispell, MT in Sept 2019. :)