Kent in KC
Active member
My cordless sander (Firestorm 18v) with a medium grit pad makes short work of drywall sanding. Nice, flat and smooth seams in about five or six passes.
Tip for sanding drywall mud
- Thread starter Kent in KC
- Start date
PAToyota
Well-known member
For all the drywall work I've done around my place, I should have just bought one but I've been renting the Porter Cable drywall sander. No dust - smooths everything out - works fast. No other way as far as I'm concerned.
I'm in the middle of finishing the drywall in my 24 X48 shop.PAToyota said:
I built it in 1989 and have been using it for restoring, engine builds, pant etc.
Since I'm pushing 50 and slowing down on the back breaking work... the last 8
months I have re-wired, insulated and drywalled trying to make it a better looking shop.
Pole sanding was killing my back so I broke out the DA and Straight Line to try
on the drywall mud. Tuesday I was able to finish a 48' X 8 wall in two hours.
The mud was kind of thick (noob) but the air tools cut it smooth like butter!
The only drawback was OMG the dust! It looked like the shop was on fire lol
with dust rolling out the 16' door! Whats worse is working off a ladder the air
tools are close to your face and when I came out of the garage I looked like
someone busted a 5 pound bag of flour over my head
I'm going to finish up (hopefully) this weekend so I can soon paint and lay down
some race-deck and finally be through with this nasty part of the re-model.
Junkman
Well-known member
Run a damp rag across all the drywall to get the dust off before you paint. Also, prime with a primer paint that will hide the seams. I was told that the drywall manufacturers sell such a paint specifically for this purpose, but haven't had the need to look for it. My garage is done in skim coat plaster over fire code sheetrock....
1320stang
Well-known member
I use a damp sponge, no sanding needed, but brownbag is right, I've gotten pretty decent at laying mud for no more than I do it. Another key is to not work the mud so much, you're just entraining more air pockets. A couple or three passes is enough, patience is the key. I usually bed the tape (I like the fiberglass cloth) and just get it down and let it dry. After it's dried, hit it with the knife to knock down the peaks and then go with the second pass. I try to be more careful here, this is my main pass. Let it dry and knock the peaks down again. Third pass is my final pass, usually just hitting the spots that look bad. After ir dries, hit it with the knife again, then sponge it.