Took me 2 years to figure out I was sanding drywall wrong

I kept getting those swirl marks no matter how careful I was. My neighbor who does drywall for a living saw my wall and asked if I was using a work light. I said no and he just laughed. Turns out you need a bright light angled at the wall to see the imperfections as you sand. I tried it on my last patch job and it was like night and day. No more guessing if I missed a spot or pressed too hard. Has anyone else had a simple trick like this that saved their reno?

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milap353mo ago

Oh yeah, a bright light is basically cheating once you know about it. I held my phone flashlight at a low angle on my last patch job and saw every ridge and divot clear as day. That trick alone probably cut my sanding time in half and stopped me from going back over the same spots like an idiot.

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blake4323mo ago

Thought the whole raking light thing was just internet overkill until I tried it on a ceiling patch that looked perfect in normal light. Shined a lamp across it and saw this shallow, almost invisible dip that would've bugged me forever after paint. Idk, feels like one of those tricks that sounds too simple to work but actually does, like vacuums with lights on them. Now I keep a work light on the floor angled up whenever I'm doing any kind of drywall or painting.

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