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My wife and I found ourselves out 'stocking up' this morning for the expected storm tonight and tomorrow here in the upper midwest and well, one of the essential stops had to be Woodcraft!  

I more or less needed some sanding pads for my Bosch random orbital.  I was steared towards a new sanding mesh named Abranet by Mirka abrasives.  They remind me of a fine grain dry-wall sanding mesh.

I'm very impressed by using them for just under an hour.  Certainly not long enough to test the longivity claims, but long enough to know that they are working better (cutting easier and faster) than the pads I get at the borg and the dust is reduced by a substantial amount.  Anyways, I'm liking them so I thought I would pass along this link;

http://www.mirka-usa.com/products/brands/abranet.htm

 

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Pretty Cool Jim.
maybe it will elimate pilling that gets to some of us while sanding?
Do you have to buy the little sanders to go with them? $149.00

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce--

Woodcraft have the 5" round pads for $16 for a ten pack.  Assorted grits running from 100 to 600.  The system they sell from their own website looks cool, but I'm just using the pads as of now.

 

 

 

 

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Has anyone tried the microplane stainless steel sanding disk? I bought a assorted pac. They work great and don't clog like paper.
Microplane

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Jim-
Thanks for the tip on the Abranet.

For folks who have to mail-order anyway, or who are in Canada, a source for Mirka is
Wood Essence

Jeff sells shellac flakes and other stuff for luthiers as well.
I have some details on the Abranet, which isn't listed on his website. Please send me a pm if you need details- the pricing is quite a bit better than mentioned above..
BTW, I have no financial interest in the above company- Jeff's given me good service in the past and I thought I'd mention him.

Cheers
John

Those stainless steel sheets look pretty cool.  But 5"?  Who uses little 5" discs?  Are they available in 6"?

Mirka is available in Canada.  I used to use their product.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

I'm pretty sure they only come in 5" size.  They are very good though, and are designed to work with ROS's that have dust collection.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I'm not sure if they come in bigger sizes. As waddy said i use them on my dewalt random orbit sander. They do work well though.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

From Jeff at Wood Essence:
Yes, we do stock the Abranet discs in 5" and 6" diameters in the following
grits:


100, 120, 150, 180, 240, 320, 400 and 600.


The 5" Abranets are $1.10 per disc or $45.00 for a box of 50 (you can
mix/match the grits to create a box of 50).


The 6" Abranets are $1.35 per disc or $53.00 for a box of 50 (mix and
match).


We also stock the Pad Protectors, which prevent your backup pad from wearing
prematurely because of the extra "holes" in the Abranet. The protectors
also allow a bit better circulation and dust extraction when used on sanders
that have only 5 or 8 holes in the pad. The 5" diameter protector is $6.00
and the 6" diameter protector is $7.75 each.



John

Sorry for the details- I thought the reference to only 5" was about the Abranet; now I realize y'all are talking about the Microplane discs.

John

John--

Thanks for the source at Wood Essence.  I really like the idea of being able to  mix and match the grits.

 

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Yeah we were, but we HIJACKED your thread on the Abranet disks.

Our bad, not yours.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I second or third or whatever the plug for Wood Essence. I got my sander (Mirka 3.5" bulldog pneumatic ROS) from them as well as all my papers. The pricing was really good, I could mix and match the grits to exactly the proportions I go through them in each box, and Jeff even ordered in some stuff for me he doesn't stock.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

sorry about that john.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

This whole idea of 'hijacking' is something I can't get very upset about...but it's Jim's thread, not mine.

This is all like an 'online conversation', right? So if we were sitting around the BBQ and having a chat, would anybody be upset when the conversation moved on to a different topic?

No problem!

Those microplane discs look pretty interesting- I bet I could skin my knuckles even quicker with one of them than I do with the microplane food grater in the kitchen!

Cheers

John

I meant to say Jim I found the coarse disk work great at rough shaping wood.

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

Oh yeah, on skinning your knuckles.  Been there done that!   They are some kind of sharp.  I was using one of the drum versions last night making a form.  You have to keep your hands out of the way.  Not nearly as forgiving as a sanding drum.  They won't just burn you a little, they'll take off a few layers pretty quickly.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

What grading system are the grits based on?

Michael, if you are talking about the Microplane ROS discs, they come in coarse, medium and fine, and they are based on 40, 80, and 120 respectively, but it is a different kind of cut from sandpaper.  Here is a link to their site.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I wonder if Abranet make these in a roll for thicknessing sanders?  

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK