A good sander or grit for material removal

Belt sanders can be nasty vicious little beasts. They need careful handling to avoid gouges.

You can get belt sanders with frames to stop this

Have you tried a 40 grit disc on your ROS?

Heavy duty Abranet is very aggressive and long lasting. Best used with their interface pad to avoid wrecking the velcro on your ROS

Standard abranet is excellent for surface prep through all the grades

Can you get a tungsten carbide disk to fit it?

e.g.

Patience on most sanding jobs is far more effective than 'speed' - simply let the machine do the work *without* undue pressure!

As a matter of interest, what are you trying to remove and from what - as those answers may give you a more precise solution to your problem?

Cash

Noted.

No, I don't think so. Will try to get some.

James

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To answer you and Phil L in the same message, this is not for anything special. It's just a general point. You could imagine it applying to sanding rough timber surfaces, removing paint, even removing the surface of paint, etc, etc.

James

What surface material? Paint? Other?

What grit are you using at present?

Good for flat surfaces - can be aggressive so use with care. Tool probably a lot heavier.

Produces too much heat, F****s up your tools, melts the velcro and makes the sanding pad fall off and can melt the surface (paint) which will clog up the grit in the pad.

About 20 years ago I bought a few boxes of self adhesive 3M 40 grit. Absolutely vicious and doesn't clog. I only mention it because you almost always get what you pay for with abrasives, and 3M stuff was the dog's whatsits

Belt sander for quick and rough work.

Beacuse the spaces are so huge between the abrasive particles. Think the coarsest I use is 80 but that's on planed softwood.

A good brand but cloging and wear is also affected by what the abrasive is. I find the aluminium oxide based abrasives hard wearing and fairly clog resistant and if it does clog most can be cleared with a few whacks from the flat of your hand onto the abrasive (sander off...).

Healthier too. Many years ago as a Student Engineer I was taught the biggest single improvement in industrial health and safety was the invention of wet and dry sandpaper. Apparently came from the observation that Sheffield fork grinders, who used dry stones, had a much lower life expectency than knife grinders, who used wet ones. (Though doing a search now, I see that was noticed long before 3M introduced wet and dry paper.)

I learned that lesson recently. I usually buy Toolsatan cheap own label discs, but they had run out, so I bought the more expensive Norton ones. Chalk & cheese.

Much faster sanding, lasted much longer - well worth the extra.

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I ended up buying some 40 grit discs from B&Q. They were a lot better than the discs I had used before and got the job done. Despite trying various places I couldn't find any 3M ones.

James