Sandpaper

[art3427]

I forget where I saw it, but while I was surfing the web a couple of nights ago I ran across an ad for sandpaper that used a tungsten carbide grit. It was supposed to last "forever." Any of you guys ever used a product like this? If so, was it worth the extra cost? I seem to remember that a single 6"dia. pad (PSA) was about $3.00.

art

[TDHofstetter]

I'm thinkin' that wasn't tungsten carbide, but rather silicon carbide. Tungsten carbide is even more brittle than silicon carbide, and isn't as good an abrasive.

Silicon carbide sandpapers are really very common; they're best used for sanding exceptionally hard surfaces (like hardened steel). They're available in higher grits than aluminum-oxide sandpapers because of the characteristics of their crystals - you can get aluminum-oxide sandpapers up to about 320 grit, but you can get silicon-carbide papers up to about 2000-grit. They're used to get a very high degree of polish on surfaces that can take such a polish. Lacquer is a good example, or plastics.

Aluminum-oxide papers are sharper than silicon-carbide papers, so they cut faster. Less work.

Now... no sandpaper can be said to "last forever". They all break down in use, and they all load up when they're used on resinous woods or anything else that can load up sandpaper.

Of the various papers out there, sometimes the cheapest is the best selection. For example, garnet papers are usually the best for sanding woods like cherry, which is full of resins. Garnet papers cut VERY fast (sharper than aluminum oxide), and they're also VERY CHEAP (which is good because cherry loads up any paper very quickly). Why throw away expensive paper that's still sharp just because it's loaded up and can't cut any more? Don't - instead, throw away CHEAP paper that's still sharp but loaded up.

For most woodworking purposes on non-resinous woods, aluminum-oxide papers are about the best tradeoff between sharpness and longevity and price.

Then we get into paper backing weights...

[Joe Lyddon]

Here is a good site for sanding stuff:

Klingspor...

www.woodworkingshop.com/cgi-bin/51BFF761/mac/group.mac/groupSelection?time=13:21:19?sgnOn=ok