This gator's got no power (Lowes new sandpaper)

J. Clarke · 2010-11-06T17:27:55+00:00

Was low on sanding disks and had to go down to Lowes anyway so figured I'd stock up. Instead of the expected Norton or 3M or other well known brand, I found "Gator Power". Well, I got a pack of 80 and of 120 (no 150 to be had) and tried it out. Wore out six disks trying to get the walnut stain off of one table leaf (the rest of the table had been cleaned with harsh cleansers so many times that it had no stain or other finish on it--wanted the leaf to match). The stuff cut like crazy for about ten seconds a disk and then just stopped. Didn't seem to be loaded up or anything and had lots of grit left on it, so it had to have gotten dull that fast. Worse, it left little swirly marks all over the place (you know, the kind you get when you got a metal filing stuck on the disk or something?).I finally said "screw this" and sharpened up the scraper, which made short work of it, not to mention taking out the little swirly marks.It's a limited sample and anecdotal I admit, but from my viewpoint it will be a cold day in Hell before I buy any more "Gator Power" sanding disks. It's worth the gas to drive down to Coastal if I can't get anything decent from the big box stores anymore.