How long can you use sandpaper

How much are you sanding? I find if I sand something, it's 2 passes at 1 inch per second with over lapping strokes both vertically then horizontally then it's on to the next grit. That piece is good until it stops doing what it's supposed to. Easy enough.. Possibly it's the Indian not the arrow? Stop sanding from time to time and slap the paper like you would the old lady's butt after she gets out of the shower.

Keep that pad clean and free of dust. Even though you have dust collection, it's a good Idea. Dust off the board from time to time. The work surface must be clean. You may want to try tipping the sander up some so the leading edge is more in contact with the wood. Don't focus so much on keeping it flat to the work piece. This will also aid in evacuate sanding dust and sand paper grit that has fallen off the paper..

I have tried everything , Ace. And I do mean everything. The only thing that fixes the problem is switching to a brand new disc. I had an ETS sander and it went back to the store. I couldn't get it to sand with out pigtails on brand new paper. I probably spent 12 hours strait one day sanding trying out every technique and setting. I'm glad I'm not the only one that had pigtail trouble with festool sanders.

Hate me for the dewlat that i have eric but i don't get pigtails with it period, ever. I'ts a great sander, except for the vibration thing.. I never skip grits either. Love them with butter. It's not the sander, it's the paper. The Festool is superior in a million other ways, most importantly comfort and dust collection Much less money spent on paper. I use it for 80 grit and sometimes After that I hand sand. Maybe I am a knuckle-dragger but I am a knuckle-dragger without pigtails.

It looks like a series of tiny curly lines looking like pig tails on the surface when you look in raking light. It's caused by some schmutz adhering to the pad describing the orbit of the sander - if the vacuum is too high you see it even more as the pad is pulled down harder. Again you'll have to make the decision to either keep sanding with the same sheet of paper or fold to a new side or replace the paper.

Don't know if that helps you at all but that's about all I can share with how to gauge when your paper's cutting ability is falling off. But keep in mind that whenever you're sanding paint you only have so much film-build you can safely remove and if you make a mistake because of lesser quality papers the cost of repainting a panel more than justifies the higher quality Nikken papers, not to mention the time involved in fixing a mistake and the fun of telling the owner of the car what happened.

At some point in the 's Bill sold his rights to sell the paper in North America to Meguiar's, that's how Meguiar's obtained distribution rights. Bill told me that the Nikken paper is actually an electronics grade paper and the quality control as such was much higher than an automotive grade paper. The Nikken papers used a latex impregnated paper for a backing so they won't and don't break down like lesser quality papers and instead of having grit particles dropped onto the paper during the manufacturing process, somehow an electrostatic charge is used to draw the particles up to the paper so the paper travels down the manufacturing process upside down.

Because of this, Nikken finishing papers offer sanding marks with a uniform depth and uniform sanding mark pattern over the paint being sanded. Note I didn't use the word scratches , as in a uniform depth and uniform sanding scratches because the quality of the paper tends to leave the paint just looking dull, not filled with sanding scratches.

The goal is enabling a person to remove the least amount of paint to get the job done, that means more paint on the car for the customer over the service like of the car , while leaving a sanding mark pattern that will buff out faster and with more control on the side of the technician.

If you use papers that have little or no control over the particle size or placement of particles on the face of the paper you lose control over the sanding marks and thus the technician looses control over the process.

Of course, given the chance I prefer to machine sand with an air powered DA Sander first and save hand sanding for areas that don't lend themselves well to machine sanding. What's really cool is Autogeek offers people the ability to get a collection of different grits instead of having to purchase entire sleeves of a single grit. For those of you on the East Coast that want to learn how to hand sand and wet-sand this will be one of the classes we will be offering. Need to print this.

Originally Posted by zckid. Hey Mike, Im planning on repairing a key scratch this weekend. All I have for leveling the touch up paint is grit nikken sheets. Will that be sufficient? I use klingspor and Norton disks so the things are pretty good quality, and i know after a while a 80 disk probably ends up more like a as the abrasive wears down. Sometimes its really is hard to tell.

One common misconception is that as the abrasive wears down, its like sanding at a higher grit. You are just sanding at the same grit with much less efficiently. First is visible wear. For paper that has no visual indicator, I actually just feel the surface.

Eventually, the paper will feel a lot smoother when compared to a fresh piece. So how do you know when to switch? If you want to save paper, you can wait a long time.

But you are doing it at the expense of time and sanding efficiency. In a professional shop where time is more expensive than sandpaper, you switch out more often to get the job done sooner. Its hard to describe just how much smoothness I look for, so you kind of have to decide for yourself. But you should be able to tell when your sanding efficiency is going down.

And keep in mind that even dull paper will continue to sand….. Hope that makes sense and gives you at least some guidance. Good luck! Here are the steps for this project: Clean the used sandpaper to remove any debris. You can find out more about cleaning your sandpaper below. Dry the sandpaper before use. Place the sandpaper disc on a piece of MDF for starters.

A sheet of thin softwood can also work. Use scraps to keep the costs down. Trace the shape of the sandpaper on the wood. Secure the wood to the sandpaper disc. Now, you have an easy-to-use tool that you can use for the finishing touches! Cleaning Your Sandpaper for Reuse Whether you have been using sheets of sandpaper or sandpaper discs for electrical sanders, you can also clean them to reuse them.

Soak the sandpaper for a few hours. Once the debris has softened, you can use a steel brush to remove it from the sandpaper. After it is clear, allow the sandpaper to dry before using it again. Rub an eraser against the sandpaper to get rid of debris. While your sandpaper might not come out entirely clean, you can at least use it to finish your project.

You can make your sandpaper last longer by: Regularly cleaning it and dusting it down Soaking it in water and removing debris with a metal brush Using an abrasive cleaning stick against the sander What Is the Longest-Lasting Sandpaper? Especially in wood preparation, the longest-lasting materials include: Zirconium dioxide sandpaper: This alloy of zircon and aluminum dioxide is gray and one of the most efficient sandpaper ones.

Ceramic alumina sandpaper: This is a highly long-lasting material perfect for sanding hard surfaces such as metal and stainless steel. It is much more resistant to heat than aluminum oxide.

Aluminum oxide: Available in pink, white, and brown colors, Aluminum oxide is considered one of the most versatile synthetic abrasive grains. When compared to other materials on the Mohs Hardness Scale , Aluminium oxide is one of the most resistant.

Silicon carbide sanding: Created through carbothermal reduction, this material is one of the hardest ones on the Mohs scale, achieving a score of 9.