Palm sanders aren't limited to the few grits available in hook and loop discs. Anything is available for quarter sheet sanders, up to and beyond 2000 grit. 320 is the finest I've seen for ROS.
Fast way to a flawless, ready to finish surface with a palm sander is to go up to 320, then finish by hand, straight strokes, with 220 to remove the swirl marks.
Which brings up the question... why don't they have a Velcro version or attachment for ROS? I looked at Lowes and HD yesterday and every palm sander still has that horrible metal wire spring/clip system to attach the paper. The same mechanism that my 20 year old Skil has.
Are you kidding me? This is the best they can come up with. It is THE MOST horribly awkward and inconvenient way to attach and remove sandpaper.
I'd rather find an internet source for Velcro disks than deal with that horrible mechanism.
Yeah, I had an old Makita like that. Sold it on eBay and was glad to see it go. I'd never buy another of that same style.
Klingspor has 'em up to 1500, Mirka to 4000, Micro-Mesh to 12,000. If you need more than 12,000 then it's time to slap on a foam pad and break out the polishing compound.
Don't you mean for a palm sander? Every ROS I have seen in the past 10 years or so has a velcro base.
Thank you. I was hoping whoever brought up that website, before, talking about the cheap, bulk sandpaper discs would bring it up again in this thread. :-)
Yes. They need to develop a Velcro attaching system for palm sanders.
Thank you for following along. :-)
I wouldn't buy it. My palm sander has the wire paper retainers and it takes me less than 30 seconds to change paper. The advantages are that paper is cheaper, reduced paper inventory as the sheets can be used for multiple things and better variety of available paper.
Takes me less than two to change the velcro sheets. When I'm in that zone, like a machine, it's frustrating to have to take even 30 seconds to change one out. I'm impressed that you can cut those sheets and punch out the dust port holes in that time, too. :-)
The better variety argument doesn't stand as you can find those disks on the internet at any grit you'd need. And I'm not concerned with reduced inventory nor price. Even expensive sandpaper isn't, in the big picture. But that's not and issue given said websites.
The more I do this, the more I find I prefer things that help me do more work more efficiently, once I am working. To each his own.
I don't know how many times I have done the math but expensive sandpaper is cheaper than cheap stuff. So is the method of attaching the paper. Time is money. ...and 20 bucks worth of paper on a 3000 dollar countertop is totally and completely meaningless.
Once wasn't enough, eh?
Yeah, I've been amazed at how long a $1 5" 5-hole velcro Norton will last compared to a $0.40 6" PSA from HF. It's at least 6x.
BTW, Toy, I thought you might roll your own with freeze-dried banana leaves, sticky drool from the inscrutable Quebecois, and sand from the St. Lawrence beaches. Am I wrong?
-- You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.? -- Ronald Reagan
I am completely in that camp and it was reinforced this very week. I had a bunch of leftover paper, some from a big box and some from Harbor Freight. The HF stuff practically fills up and clogs in one pass. Even the big box stuff I bought in sheets a while back seems to take longer to fill, but still clogs and I need to vac it out or toss it because it just doesn't cut any more.
When I get the premium stuff, it just seems cut better and last longer. It will fill up, but then keep cutting and push the cut dust out of the way. I get at least 30:1 life over the HF stuff and probably 5:1 over the regular big box stuff.
I think sandpaper technology has improved even in the past few years, as I notice much better performance from the premium paper I recently bought.
Our local HF has the Norton discs...... for more than Lowes and HD charge. :-)
-MIKE- wrote in news:igbdu7$89n$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
I agree that sand paper is getting better. The difference between the included 220 grit Mouse sand paper (about 10 years old) and the 220 grit
3M purple paper was dramatic. I had to change the included paper about once per side of a book shelf, and just about finished the rest with a single sheet of the 3M. I haven't tried the Norton yet.I need to get some sandpaper for my new sander. The Lowes Gator paper isn't worth taking it off the shelf. Time to put another sheet on the sander... To be honest, I wasn't impressed with the included sheet of Bosch paper either.
Puckdropper
FWIW, I couldn't find any Norton disks at the local Lowes the last time I went. I took what they had, "Gator Power" and, well, if that gator had any power to begin with he lost it when they turned him into sandpaper. Further, the crap costs more than Home Depot gets for Norton or Coastal gets for Bosch.
Really? I picked up some of their new "Ultra Power" and was this is what I was braggin on. Have you used this new stuff?
If the 3M Purple stuff is even that much better than the Gator Ultra, then I can't want to try it.
-MIKE- wrote in news:igd2jm$frf$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:
It was just the standard stuff. I have not tried the Ultra Power version.
Puckdropper
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