Save Money When Sanding!

Save money when sanding.

Save money when sanding? How I hear you say.  Well you can,  by using a dust extraction system and using the right sanding medium.  Additionally, the added advantage of having just one medium (although you still need different grit size) that will fit all my sanders which  work by having a velcro style base.

I have various sanders, as many of you do I suspect. All serve different purposes. I have a standard 1/3rd sheet Black & Decker sander, A Black & Decker mouse sander, a palm sander as well as a large and small belt sander. Of course the belt sanders can’t make use of my tip. What did you expect? Miracles?

To have one sanding sheet that will fit the mouse, the palm and the standard sander is impossible surely? How can that be? And also to claim it to be cheaper? Whilst giving an additional sanding tool?

The solution.

I have a video here that will make the answer clearer. Then I will breakdown the costs and show just how much of a saving you can make.

First the video.

Savings and flexibility

So as you saw in the video, its simply buying roll of Abranet of your chosen grit size. Choose one that is as wide as your widest sander. If you then place the relevant sander, i.e. a mouse for example you simply cut around it. You can even cut to the extended nose of the mouse sander.
I said it was cheaper well here are the costings according to my spend.

1 roll of 115mm by 1o metre Abranet will give me 53 sheets for the 1/3d size sander (and 53 replacement sheets for the small finger sander). As this type of abrasive is classed as 4 times longer lasting that equals  212 sheets for £30.

That equates to £0.13p per sheet. (plus all those finger sticks and one sanding sheet for all my sanders…) So how much would ‘ordinary’ sanding sheets cost? Well B and Q DIY stores sell a mixed set of 5 sheets for £10.32.  Thats £2.06p per sheet. Thats around 18 to 20 times the cost comparing the Abranet roll to normal sheets. Or only 6% (ish) of the cost of normal sand paper.

But I hear you shout I buy mine cheaper than that.

Well looking on eBay I found one supplier sell 20 sheets for £6.49. I don’t know their quality but that still comes out at £0.32p compared to £0.13p.

I suspect that, with dust extraction, the 4 time ratio would be even higher.  I know when buying ‘cheaper’ sandpaper in the past that the holes never fitted my sander. It didn’t matter because I never used dust extraction at that time. When upgrading to my wood workshop I discovered that the vacuum cleaner I used for some 10 or so years, had the facility to turn itself on and off when connecting the sander to its outlet.

Since I now use the vacuum cleaner for dust extraction, the holes lining up becomes a big issue. My palm sander in particular was a problem so I bought 6 sheets designed for it recently for £10.96!  When you consider the palm sander is even more economical due to its Platen size it  gives 87 sheets per roll. The mouse also is much much cheaper again.

Conclusion

1.     Due to the nature of Abranet, the dust extraction feature becomes very efficient.

2.    The roll of Abranet gives flexibility, by using the material on my 3 different sanders. The 1/3rd sheet, the mouse and the palm.

3.    Costings. Much cheaper than buying even cheap (and Im never sure of the quality and lasting times of these so called bargains) sanding sheets for each and every sander.

4.     As a bye product you get as many finger sanding sticks as you could ever need.

For me its a no brainer…..what about you?

If you want to know where I sourced the ‘magic’ roll of Abranet then click on the link below. Be aware though that if you do buy via this link then I will receive a small commission from eBay. This goes to offset the running cost of the website. Don’t believe for a moment that I can retire on their commission, but at least you know.

If you don’t want me to gain the small commission then please don’t click the link. Rather go out of my website and search for the Abranet roll.

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Please leave a comment if you found this article either interesting and or informative. Thanks for visiting.

Mike.

UPDATE – 17th June 2017

Today I sanded a large bench over 2m long including 6 drawer fronts, 1 cupboard and the 2m x 0.6m workbench top, legs etc. More sanding than I have done for a while. I used my B & D 1/3rd sheet sander, with dust extraction, and the Abranet sheet. I only used 1 complete sheet and its about 1/2 way through the next!

I was both surprised and pleased. The quality of sanding and the fine dust given off would not have been achieved with ‘normal’sanding paper.