hook and loop sanders

[Ba r r y]

You know, you've got me thinking.

5" ROS's are cheap enough to dedicate to 2-3 grits. The heavy stuff gets belt sanded or planed. I usually always use my finish sander with the same grit.

Hmmmmm...

Thanks, Leon!

Barry

[loutent]

Hmmm...guess I'm basically cheap.

Still, I'm talking finish sanding - 220. When these H&L sheets don't stick, there still seems to be a lot of grit left on them.

You actually only get 8 minutes of sanding from 1 sheet?

Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Thanks.

Lou

[patriarch]

Ba r r y wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That Leon is a smart fella...

If you can justify more than 3 routers, or 5 handplanes, or two dovetail saws, why would 3 ROS be a stretch?

Of course, you'd have to be either in business, or hopelessly addicted.

Patriarch, seemingly the latter...

[Leon]

I am especially talking finish sanding. Yeah there is a lot of grit left but compared to the new unused paper it can be quite dull. I go by the feel of the paper and by the appearance. I actually start to see the paper start to change form the white coating color to the paper backing color. Seriousely once a piece of paper dulls you are basically doing little in the way of sanding compared to a new piece of paper.

Not 1 sheet, 1 piece on the sander. While that does not seem like a long time I can probably sand a project in 1/3 to 1/2 the time by changing out the paper when it gets dull. Now if you like standing there sanding,,,, ;~)

Probably. I think you will be plesantly suprised at how much faster a new sheet will sand over one that has been working for 8 or 9 minutues. I do not have a dust collector on either of my sanders and can easily visually tell by the amount of dust being blown away by my fan how much more effecient a new piece of paper is over the one I have been using. I know that changing H&L that often may feel costly, that is why I use PSA over H& L.

[Leon]

"patriarch [e-mail]" That Leon is a smart fella...

Aw..Shucks.... LOL

I am on the first and probably on the second. Seriously though H&L is a great alternative when you need to chang grits before the paper is worn out. I personally may go through 8 or 10 pieces of the same grit paper on my ROS before switching to my finish sander that uses the same grit all the time and I may go through 8 or 9 pieces of the same grit at one time while sanding on a project.

[Richard Clements]

Have you tried the Nortan 3X sheets?

there support to work a lot better, I use Nort>

[Richard Clements]

if you think about it 3 ROS's isn't that much money, get Riobi's that have been refurbished, for $20 each who cares if it only lasts a year, I've had mine for 3 years now, you could get 4 for less then the Dewalt model

patriarch wrote:

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:33:44 -0500, loutent calmly ranted:

Multiply the RPM by the minutes to get the number of strokes you'd have do make by hand to wear the sheet out. Which is better to you?

Anyway, save the worn-out hook sheets to use by hand.

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

[Slowhand]

My 1992 dewalt 5" ros motor died about 5 mos ago. Same h&l pad. SH

[Fred the Red Shirt]

How about a stiff (but not wire) brush. A toothbrush maybe? Maybe with soap and water?

I don't recall ever needing to do anything more leaborate than brush mine with my hand and blow on it.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

I narrowed the problem down, as you suspect, to the quality of the H&L material on the paper. I was buying Norton boxes from the Borg and even had the paper frisbee off the sander on occassion. Once I switched to Mirka H&L disks, I've had zero problems. The Mirka disks are held very securely with the same sander pad, so it's obvious to me it was a material quality issue with the Nortons.

[Slowhand]

Uh oh. I use norton from the borg also. So far no problems. SH

[NoOne N Particular]

To start off with, I have had much more trouble getting the stick-on disks to stay attached than I ever had with H&L. At the time I was using the cheapie disks and Porter Cable disks on my Craftsman cheapie ROS. I don't think I could go more than about 5 minutes and the disk would start coming off. Any of them, coarse grit, medium grit, or fine grit didn't matter. Also, I could never just change disks to a different grit without having to "throw away" the one I just took off. There was also the problem of storing the old one without contaminating the adhesive. When I "converted" it to H&L things got much much better. Then the motor went TU, but that is another story.

Once in a while I still have a sanding disk that will start to come loose, but I take my air gun and spray the sander's hooks and the disk's loops and I am usually good to go again. This seems to be a problem only when using

220 or 320 grit disks. I don't know why, maybe the extra fine dust just gets into more of the H&L, but is infrequent to say the least.

The only time I have ever had a problem with H&L is when I tried to rip one off too fast and the hook part on the sander tore. My hands weren't exactly clean and it got a little dust under it and wouldn't stay on after that. I bought a replacement at the same orange Borg. I made sure the sander was cleaned of old adhesive, and then cleaned it again, and then cleaned the cleaner off before putting on a new hook pad. I used a spray contact cement (3M Adhesive 90) and it has been fine for over a year now.

Norton's disks work great for me and I like them a lot. I really do think they last 3 times longer than regular disks. The one thing that I don't like about them is the hole pattern. I got the type that will fit 5-hole and 8-hole sanders and they just look weird. Like there is just too much surface area missing. When I go to buy more, I will get the 8-hole only version.

Just yesterday I was sanding for about 15-20 min on a 36" pine round that I bought from the orange Borg. This round had been run through a wide belt sander with a coarse belt and was fairly rough, but using ONLY a 220 grit disk on my ROS it is now as smooth as a baby's butt. Both sides. It wasn't a new pad when I started and I think it may have a few more bf before it is done.

So after all of this verbage, when it comes to the stick-on/H&L war, I will be on the H&L side. Works for me and gives me the ability to change disks without having to throw away the one I just took off.

Wayne

"Slowhand" >> anyway.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

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