Fine Sand Paper

General Composites Discussions Equipment Talk
#1

So the thee day my busIness partner and I were at our local home depot and saw a 5" random orbital sander on sale for $30. We picked that up and then visited our material suppliers and purchased a. Box 600, 800, 1200, and 1500. All Velcro dry sanding paper. I used it today to sand a new mold and this stuff works great, but wears out fast. The 600 and 800 is manufactured by Mirka. The type of paper is Auto Net. The 1200 and 1500 are by 3m.

On a 4ft x 1.5ft mold I went through four sheets of 800, four of 600, and five of 1200. The mold was already very smooth and that’s after wet sanding some s
It’s with 400. Is this paper supposed to wear out so fast? I tried both wet and dry sanding with the orbital sander. I’m thinking that’s just how it is and I need to get used to paying more money on this sand paper in order to reduce manual labor sanding by 70%…

Can anybod recommend any other brands for hook-it? I want to continue using the Orbital sander.

What do you use and how?

#2

A lot of the sanding we still do by hand, if it is a flange area we use the palm sander and the sanding paper is klingspor, we use an isolating pad though. Similar experience to you, this could be a stretch for a reason but I have noticed the sand paper wears different based on the type of surface coat we have in the mould. Some we use have a silica carbide to it, wears faster on that.

The Mirka line is nice, good quality, I like it but our main supplier is into the Klingspor.

#3

I like Klingspor but I like Mirka equally.

I guess it is what it is :(. Sand paper will just go quickly when using a palm sander ha. We purchased it to be able to sand parts quicker. We clear coat all of our parts once or twice so it helps to be able to cut down through that clear coat in seconds instead of minutes. Especially when we are sanding a center console. A Mustang center console will take us roughly 30 min to sand. With the palm sander its roughly 5. We’re looking to be a high volume shop so we have to be able to optimize ourselves.

#4

Although I mostly sand with finish sanders, I have the impression that the Autonet stuff lasts much longer than normal sandpaper (Coarse Cut and Gold, both Mirka).

So I am a bit puzzled by your observations. What is the tool surface?