Best Way To Remove Varnish.

[mickeyj4j]

Hi I have an old ukulele that has a crack that is not fixable see help required. It is not worth fixing I may brace it underneath and probably will paint a funky design on it.
So before I do anything I want to know the easiest way to remove the varnish, or dominant have to do it by hand. I also have a vibrating sander but this will not run with the grain.

Any help would be appricated.

[kiwigeo]

You wanna "paint" your uke??? You're on your own Buddy.....

[simso]

The crack on the uke, was an easy fix, can be done by yourself easily.

Sanding a uke with an orbital is a really bad choice, it will leave swirl marks in the wood, which even when you follow up hand sanding will take a long time to remove

If you need to remove the varnish just 220 grit by hand running with the grain

Steve

[Craig Bumgarner]

In the past, I've used a 15mm x 100 x 100 plywood block with a 3mm layer of cork glued on. Wrap this with 120g for the initial removal and change up to the 320 as soon as I start breaking through to the wood itself. Takes less time than you might think. The trick is to use fairly coarse paper initially, but know when to quit and change up.