Sanding Sculpey Firm problem..

[Remy LeBeau]

Hey all,
I am wet sanding my sculpey firm and it is leaving a residue that is making it hard to see the smoothness..

What do you guys do to eliminate the white residue? I have tried going over it with both water and alcohol.

Thanks!

[Mister H]

You mean sanding it after it's hardened?

[Remy LeBeau]

Hey Mister H!

Yes; I have already baked it and I am wet sanding it.

It is leaving a white residue from the sanded clay.

Not sure how to get rid of this, makes it difficult to see the job underneath.

Running under the sink seems to help but not 100%.

thanks !

[Mister H]

To be honest, I've never sanded hardened Sculpey before. I guess just make sure you are using the highest grit paper you can find. What I usually do is after I'm finished with an area, before heating it, I will use a tiny roller to even out the surface and/or use 70% alcohol.

[SONICobra]

How much are you trying to sand off? Im assuming youre basically polishing it if youre wetsanding. For typical sanding i find 80 > 180 > 320 achieves a smooth enough finish to paint

If polishing is the goal wetsanding will get you there but the cloudy water is a result - just use a tiny spay bottle of water to clean off before it dries

[RichardSmithe]

Should we use sanders if we do this? I am kind of new when it comes to sculptures and someone told me that sanders are the way to go. In my opinion it does not make much sense because you can do a better job on a sculpture if you just do it without a sander. I did some research and I found out that orbital sanders are not really expensive and I ordered one from Amazon. On bestorbitalsander.com I learned which one to buy and I got the smallest and cheapest one. It will be perfect for me because I will not be using it every day, that's for sure.

[DarkKni9hT]

I normally dry sand my sculpts, so the dust just falls away. For polishing and smoothing I use a green kitchen scrubby for pretty good results. Maybe that will get rid of your white residue as well.

[Remy LeBeau]

Originally Posted by DarkKni9hT

I normally dry sand my sculpts, so the dust just falls away. For polishing and smoothing I use a green kitchen scrubby for pretty good results. Maybe that will get rid of your white residue as well.

thanks for the reply! =)