Boys and Girls,

I originally posted this on LJ back 13 Dec,2019 and today, 4 years later I’m gobsmacked by the number of people that haven’t heard of them.  If you chose not to use it, it’s your prerogative, however, to not know about it is hellfire sacrilidge.

 

No one seems to have bothered to post about this great product, so let me bite the bullet

and for any members here and any LJ lurkers taking that clandestine peek, here it is with a tad update in this preface.

 

I haven’t gone all techo and compared its cutting capacity with other brands or its longevity when not being pressure critical, my primary premise is the dust collection brought about the ease (lack off the need) of hole alignment, which to me is the premise of successful dust collection… thereafter sanding is just sanding and the hero of the result is your choice of sanders and technique.

 

My primary concern about the discs was their “fragility”… they tend to tear/rip easily,

however, with less mucho aggression
 

(unintentionally dipping the sander on edges) and a bit of TLC,

I’ve learnt to extend their primary life,

(different grits, same outcome)…now it’s only a flesh wound.

 

Since posting the original, I have bought Abranet to fit my Fe$tool ¼ sheet sanders and Delta sanders, 

...they even work for corded sanders,

which has upped my dust collection capabilities.  I have also recently discovered the Abranet for my belt sander,

I was a tad apprehensive about the dust collection for belt sanders, however, I have noticed quite a build-up of sawdust when I forget to swap hoses around (I have 3 hoses attached to 3 different sanders that need to be swapped out at the dusty end)…

so I’m hoping the Abranet will permit betted pass through.

Though it may be a while before I can test them as I bought 3 bundles of el-cheapo mixed bag from Amazon 

that had 3 each of 5 different grits, just prior to finding the Abranet belts. I was after 80G and I found that the 3 bundles had 9 x 80G belts that were cheaper than a 10 pack of 80G that RCin his benevolence suggested (albeit a bloody parochial Queensland vendor) … however, I got 36 other grit belts gratis.

What is pissing me off is that they seem to last much longer than I expected since I religiously started to regularly clean up the belts using these sticks,

so it might be a while before I can review the Abranet belts. If you haven't got those sticks... get them!

 

While I’m on the topic of mesh sanding,  taking a stroll in my storage room, I found this box of sanding mesh strips (not Abranet brand),

which I haven’t used as yet (still have the rubber band around each roll), however, with my lathe dust collector,

I can foresee better dust collection with their “pass through” properties.

 

Enough prattle, here’s the LJ presentation.

 

 

 

----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo --------------------------------------------- 

 

Boys and Girls,

 

I was abhorred to read that there is at least one person out there in the woodworking community that hasn't even heard of Abranet sanding discs let alone use it.

[QUOTE]

Well there is a product I haven t heard of abranet I will go look iit up and educate myself.

[/QUOTE]

I shall avoid all temptations of identification to preclude embarrassing the author….

 

Now don't get Abranet confused with Abralon sanding pads,

which is foam backed sanding pads/disks.

 

There are many brands of "abranet" on the market (well I know of two) with some better than others… Even Fe$tool have a line of Abranets.

 

They range from free (if you're a good kleptomaniac) to about $1.50 per sheet (if you are too bleeding lethargic to shop around).  While they can cost quite a bit more than "traditional" holey discs, with proper use they will last twice as long (more on proper this later).  Originally I used to bulk buy on rolls, cut the circles and punch the holes in them… when adding my labor cost, hole punch(es) and jigs to hold the bulk roll flat, I was on a fools errand.

 

I use Mirka brand discs.  This is primarily because they are readily available at local (Melbourne) wood shows, where I always make a bee line to their stand to stock up.  I do tend to stock pile

I vaguely remember (anything) paying $60 /50 pads which was quite cheaper than the current $76 /50 (... and out of stock to boot).

 

The beauty of these pads is that there are no holes that need to be aligned to all my variety of sanders

and the sanding swarf gets captured in the mesh, leaving a clear sanding surface.  With careful use they will last at least twice as long as traditional discs and are easily to shaken, beaten or air blasted for continued use.

 

I say careful use only because being a "net" it does not have any reinforcement around the perimeter and if you are not too careful you can easily catch an edge which will cause the disc to rip from the circumference inwards.

A couple of discs relegated for manual labor,

 

I always suggest that if you tend to relive sharp edges, you chamfer them prior to sanding.

Nevertheless I can use spent disc (intact or torn) in these automotive sanding pads explicitly designed to take the shape of the disc.

 

Another benefit of abranet discs, if you use the above mentioned pads, there are no holes that can get caught on an edge/corner when manually sanding,

I have a swag of old non-abranet discs (without holes) that I consider a single use and then toss them if only to deplete my redundant stock,

unfortunately because of these, I unintentialy tend to extend the life cycle of some of my ratty abranet discs.

 

Now if there is anyone out there hard of hearing, I have made a short video with sound that is guaranteed to assist you in embracing your ailment.  And those visually challenged, will confirm that you are missing nothing.

 

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