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.
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. |
