My saw guy in Tucson asked why I sand to 220 on face frames before assembly, and it stung a little
He asked if I was building furniture or hiding sins, because glue squeeze out and a card scraper do more for a joint than two extra grits ever will. I skipped 220 on the last set of cherry uppers for a job off Speedway and the finish came out just as clean in half the time. Curious how many of you go past 180 on parts that get glued anyway.
Hiding sins" cuts deep because that's exactly what I'm doing half the time and didn't know it. I sanded a whole set of maple drawer fronts to 220 last month and then glued them up anyway, felt real productive standing there with sawdust in my ears. My own rule is 180 on anything getting a joint and 220 only on the show face after assembly, which I break constantly because old habits die hard. The squeeze out thing got me too, I used to scrub it with a rag and smear it into the grain like a genius, now I just let it skin over and peel it with a chisel. Card scraper does more in ten seconds than my random orbit does in ten minutes. Painful but fair.