Mirka Abrasives have an impressive range of products that produce dust free sanding. They range from this little hand sanding kit which you hook up to a hose right up to revolving dry wall sanders. There is also a dust extraction pole sander which looks very useful.
Dust isn't welcome in any customer's premises and shouldn't be welcome in the air we breathe. All too often building trades accept it as part of the job.
If you have used dust extraction on power sanders you don't need me to tell you how this works line up the holes and away you go but you will also know that some dust extraction is a bit hit and miss whereas this works fantastically well. The reason for this big difference is that the Abranet abrasive is not paper with holes in but an open mesh that allows the dust to deposit itself in the mesh and be drawn through the holes in the hook and loop backing.
Out on site I carried out a few test with the dust extraction switched off and then switched it on to see the difference. I discovered that there is another great advantage to Abranet over and above paper and that is that the flow of air helps keep the sanding medium unclogged and cool so you aren't reconstituting the paint dust into a hard glaze that clogs the sanding mesh. The abrasives are fairly pricey but they last a long time so in all honesty I don’t think they work out more expensive and this a fantastic bit of kit. Even if it cost twice as much as it does it would be worth it. Use it and you won’t want to be without it.
The publicity photographs for this product show people sanding in fully furnished rooms which seems a bit unrealistic until you try it. For the decorator working in a fully furnished building this can save hours of sheeting up and it will also impress your customer.
Dust is not welcome in any customer's premises and it shouldn't be welcome in the air we breathe. All too often building trades accept it as part of the job. We shouldn't. If you have ever seen anyone living on oxygen with that little hose pipe clipped to the bottom of their nostrils you will know just what a miserable existence it is when your lungs are shot to bits. We may assume that people on oxygen are smokers and this may be the case but my brother in law didn't smoke but worked in a car body shop. Despite extractors and regular inspections he subjected to dust and solvents every day. He now struggles along with one lung and has had to give up deep sea diving which he loved. There is no such thing as good dust so we all need to do everything we can to minimise it.