Painting wood so wood smooth no grain

[Janet]

I am painting wood and I do NOT want the grain and pits to show.  Do I use a filler or compound to level it out?  I've sanded but these are dips and ripples.  Help 

[yotsuya]

High-fill primer?

[taylormadelv]

Get some Bulls Eye 123 primer. Apply, sand and repeat.

[thomas_surles]

You can get a big thing of wood filler at Wal-Mart for 7 dollars. Get 2. And mix with a little water and rub on. Let dry then sand if completely. Then prime and paint. Smoothest in the world.

[Cobolisdead]

Good tips! I will have to remember these when I start to paint mine!

[jennifer]

      When you sand the primer (most likely around a 120 grit), start on one end and crosshatch your pattern across the whole area.... Keep moving ,don't stop and grind a spot. If the paper gums up its junk, clean paper is essential in getting a fast cut needed to level out the waves... and when you finally start hitting wood, stop, and reprime. Resand with around a 400grit.

[Mary_Baker]

Useful tips. What I've realized in all these years is this - come what may, paint will not fill in cracks, dents, holes or other imperfections in the wood and keep them hidden once it is dry. In fact, these imperfections will probably become all the more apparent. If any old paint is present on the wood, that should be completely removed, first by scraping off and then by using a trisodium phosphate solution (this really helps). Then, using a flexible putty knife fill in all gouges, deep and not so deep, with any quality wood putty (the market today has a wide variety of choices). Once you've sanded the surface of the wood with coarse sandpaper and given the finishing touch with fine sandpaper, you're almost good to go. Primer helps any type of paint on wood (and otherwise) achieve a uniform, rich look. Use grey primer for darker coats of paint and white primer for brighter coats of paint.

[padstack]

I run a skim of drywall compound over grain.  Let dry, then sand lightly.  Works ok for me and it's pretty cheap.

[dkersten]

Thing you always have to keep in mind is wood moves.  When talking plywood veneer, it is pretty stable (one of the reasons to use plywood), so any kind of filler will work to fill the grain and most likely last, but if you have a piece of hardwood, even just a piece of trim, it WILL change size over time, so much that an 8 foot piece of wood can move as much as a half inch depending on temperature and humidity.  Some fillers won't be able to flex enough and will lead to cracks in the paint.  Look for fillers that are made for filling grain, and avoid woods like Oak that have really prominent grain.  Maple, Poplar, and some kinds of Birch all take paint really well without much need for filling the grain first. 

Whatever filler you use, I recommend a larger sanding surface, like a large sanding block, otherwise you will more likely end up with high and low spots.  If the wood has a fairly open grain and you don't seal it with some kind of sealing primer, the texture of the paint will be different between the filled spots and the raw wood.  Once you think the surface is smooth, hit it with a coat of some kind of sealing primer, let it dry for 2-3 days, sand it again with 220 or 320, then prime and paint.