Rubber abrasive wheel–7 features

Evaluate your rubber abrasive wheel
Polishing is a daunting task and is often described as the work that people least like. Not only has the sander been improved to simplify the task, but the rubber abrasive wheel technology has also been significantly developed to improve grinding efficiency. Once you know which grit is needed, we will guide you through the selection of the power tool rubber abrasive wheel.

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Is the more expensive rubber abrasive wheel worth it?
When you are working on an important project, if the completion is not correct, then all the hard work until then will be meaningless. Therefore, the accuracy of the rubber abrasive wheel is critical, and seven main characteristics need to be evaluated to achieve a perfect surface quality.

1) Substrate quality
The backing material must be strong enough to be stable, but at the same time flexible enough to move as needed. High quality backing materials will combine flexibility, stability and tear resistance.

Flexible rubber abrasive wheel
Flexible rubber abrasive wheel
Easy to cut and fold to the desired size
Greater flexibility
Gravel and coating will not break
Have more firm support
Scratched work surface
More brittle, easier to break
2) What is the actual sandpaper?
Poor quality sandpaper is often significantly different in appearance from the more expensive sandpaper. Look at the quality of the edge of the disc. Is it worn, cracked or peeled off? Bosch is concerned about the accuracy of the holes in the sanding disc, because even improper punching can affect the quality of the final product.

Innocent surface
Precision punching advantage
Better extraction
stable quality
No burr holes, no sand loss
Shortcomings of standard holes
Uneven edges can cause defects when matte
Reduced extraction performance
Sand falling from the edge will scratch the surface
3) What is the extraction effect?
Good extraction is essential when polishing with power tools, as it not only prevents you from inhaling harmful substances, but also extends the life of the rubber abrasive wheel. You can also better see the work surface for a more accurate surface finish.

Dust free
The perforations in the entire area of &#;&#;the disc allow for better dust removal because the air flow can pull material from the entire surface. This helps prevent stacking on the disc, thereby extending the life of the disc and is safer because it reduces dust deposition in the air.

BINIC also produces a porous rubber abrasive wheel that better removes dust and smooth surfaces without causing vortex marks due to build-up. Another major advantage of these discs is that you can use them with different types of sanders because you don&#;t have to match the holes to the holes in the machine. They will work with different sanders so there is no need to bother to align the holes.

4) Adhesive
The binder used to bond the rubber abrasive wheel to the lining is a key component in producing an effective rubber abrasive wheel. It is necessary to firmly fix the grit in the proper position without excessive force. There must be a balance between flexibility and hardness, because a harder binder means that the rubber abrasive wheel will be more aggressive and remove more material. If it is too hard, it will become brittle and more likely to break, resulting in the need to redo the area.

5) Gravel
Alumina is one of the most common minerals in rubber abrasive wheel grains due to its many uses. It breaks when heat and pressure are generated during the grinding process, it is tough and maintains its sharp edges. The scientific saying is fragility. This is beneficial when sanding, because shredding means the blade will be updated so you can use it longer without having to change the disc.

However, there are many different types of alumina that vary in quality and performance. It&#;s hard to determine the type on paper alone, so it&#;s often necessary to try different types and determine which type is best for you. In addition to alumina, there are other rubber abrasive wheel minerals for different tasks. For example, silicon carbide is effective on brittle surfaces such as tiles and glass.

How the grit is distributed on the board is also important for achieving a good finish. The quality meter will be evenly distributed and will be carefully monitored during the manufacturing process. The abrasive cut off saw reviews distribution is uneven and the material collects on the backing plate, which can cause it to clog and even burn the surface.

6) Coating
Some rubber abrasive wheel are also available with an additional coating such as stearate, which is best suited for sanding paints and varnishes. On the varnish, this prevents heat build-up and also bonds the varnish dust together for easier extraction and significantly longer rubber abrasive wheel life.

Rubber abrasive wheel with an electrostatic coating ensure even grain distribution with the sharpest edges facing out and ready to sand the mate

While sandpaper comes as discs, belts, sheets and rolls in a huge variety of shapes, widths, grits and backings, its most important element is still the abrasive &#; the material that actually does the work. Woodshops have traditionally used open coat aluminum oxide for softwoods, and a closed coat for hardwoods. Silicon carbide has some serious fans, too, especially in shops that process harder and more dense hardwoods. Stearate coatings on these grains helps avert clogging, and aluminum oxide is more popular because it fragments easily when sanding wood. That process, called friability, constantly reveals new, sharp edges.

There are new, sharp solutions in this arena all the time, but most of them have nothing to do with the actual abrasive. Robotics continue to make significant inroads in sanding, and woodworking is following the lead here of auto manufacturers. That sector is experiencing one of the worst droughts in qualified labor and has replaced the majority of its production lines with robots. It makes sense: robotic arms can move quickly and precisely, and they can apply exactly the right amount of pressure and speed during a sanding operation. Plus, sanding has always been regarded as a health issue, so removing humans from the line is a logical cost-saving step. Even for small woodshops, the future of abrasion lies at the end of a cobot arm.

Beyond that, the most dramatic progress of late in actual abrasives has been in backers, where meshes and new hole patterns have dramatically improved dust collection by allowing more waste to enter the vacuum stream.

3M&#;s new Cubitron II sanding discs feature a ceramic coating and StickIt backing.

Courtesy of 3M

Technology trends

One of the manufacturers leading the way in backers is Mirka (mirka.com), a company that was founded in Helsinki, Finland in the s. In , Mirka pioneered mesh backing with the introduction of Abranet, and that has changed the way that many shops approach sanding of both raw wood and cured coatings.

Mesh is exactly what it sounds like, a flat net that is coated with abrasive minerals. It&#;s more holes than whole. The Abranet line uses ceramic abrasives bonded with resin on a polyamide net mesh. Polyamides are natural or synthetic polymers, which in lay terms are essentially just substances made up of large molecules. Familiar natural examples of polyamides would be silk and wool.

This porous backing improves the longevity of the abrasive, and also speeds up the sanding process. The flexible mesh resists edge wear better than paper backers and doesn&#;t inherit the problems of uneven thickness that can be part of a woven cloth backer. But the real advantage is the porosity, where fines can be sucked right through the disc and deposited into the collector&#;s airstream. The design creates an environment where the entire surface acts as a recovery agent, rather than relying on strategically located hole patterns. Mirka says that its &#;net abrasive solution is 99.97 percent effective at removing dust particles that are smaller than 0.3 cm in size.&#;

Klingnet is a mesh-backed abrasive from Klingspor, available in 5&#; and 6&#; discs.

Courtesy of Klingspor

Klingspor (klingspor.com) also offers a mesh backer. Called Klingnet, it comes in 5&#; and 6&#; discs in grits from 120 to 800. Speaking of discs, Klingspor offers woodshops a way to convert old PSA disc sanders to hook & loop by using its Black Hook material. A woodworker decides what size disc and which hole configuration is needed, and then affixes a pre-cut disc to the old pad. That can be found in Klingspor&#;s catalog, which is available online as a PDF file. The company offers a broad range of products using both aluminum oxide and alumina zirconia abrasives.

Hengxuan Abrasive supply professional and honest service.

Klingspor says that &#;it&#;s always best to use a closed coat if loading isn&#;t an issue&#;, and that brings up a significant area of concern for woodworkers. Some species such as oily teaks and sap-heavy softwoods will do better with an open coat. In that case, the grains cover about half of the backer (or a little more), so there are gaps where larger particles can go. That helps reduce glazing and makes it easier for a resin-based cleaning block or even a compressed air jet to dislodge them and renew the abrasive. Open coats can run a bit cooler too, so the saps and resins in wood aren&#;t quite as susceptible to melting. Open coats work well with SPF and even cedar, but they&#;re aggressive and are generally used in coarser (smaller number) grits, so the shop may need to move to a semi-open or closed grit for fine sanding.

3M (3m.com) is also pioneering new abrasives. The company&#;s Cubitron II product has a ceramic coating with a friability that reveals new cutting edges in a manner that delivers very consistent performance. On the company&#;s Stickit line of J-weight cloth-backed discs, this ceramic is arranged in an open coat that&#;s designed to prevent clogging. 3M says that &#;the Stickit backing allows for easy application and removal, and a liner prevents dust and debris from contaminating the adhesive.&#; The pressure sensitive discs are stuck to a flat pad and come in a variety of hole configurations. The Cubitron abrasive itself is a precision-shaped, triangular, ceramic grain that is &#;designed to slice through the substrate, rather than gouging or plowing like conventional abrasives, resulting in a disc that cuts up to two times faster than conventional abrasives.&#; There is a static resistant coating over the particles that provides additional dust control in some woods, and the resin bond resists heat build-up.

Uneeda uses plastic as a backer for its Filmtek aluminum oxide abrasive.

Courtesy of Uneeda

Uneeda (sandpaper.com) has developed the Filmtek line that uses a waterproof, highly flexible and very durable film (it&#;s actually a plastic) backer that outlasts paper backers by a factor of two or three, depending on the application. What&#;s most significant about the Filmtek product is that the company has been able to bring the price down to the same neighborhood as paper discs. The abrasive on the blue Filmtek discs and sheets is aluminum oxide, and the film backer is a solution that offers the durability of cloth plus the smoothness of paper. Filmtek products are also stearated, and that coating adds a soapy lubricant quality to the abrasive. While stearation is usually applied as a topcoat, in this case it&#;s incorporated in the resin. It both cools the process and allows fine particles to escape, so that they don&#;t clog the spaces between the abrasive grains. Filmtek is available in a variety of shapes, with PSA or hook-and-loop fixing, and in a wide selection of hole patterns.

Improving abrasives

The Gator family of products from Ali Industries (gatorfinishing.com) offers random orbit sanding discs in both traditional aluminum oxide and also zirconium oxide (ZrO2) options. This latter may sound familiar because zirconium is widely used to make things such as dental implants and manmade engagement rings. Zirconium oxide has excessive hardness and chemical neutrality, and forms an advanced ceramic product that is significantly tougher than aluminum oxide. It has impressive heat resistance too because of its very low thermal conductivity properties, plus high strength and friability (self-sharpening).

Indasa&#;s Rhynogrip HT is an aluminum oxide abrasive with a clog resistant coating.

Courtesy of Indasa

Global Abrasive Products (GAP, online at globalabrasiveproducts.com) also makes an aluminum oxide product but it&#;s on a film backing rather than paper. Branded as FilmBac, it is produced as PSA discs with a stearated coating that comes in grits from 80 to .

The newest addition to the Rhyno line from INDASA (indasa-abrasives.com) is called Rhynogrip HT and it has been on the market for a couple of years now. Available in strips and discs on a grip (hook and loop) fastening system, it offers a very uniform scratch system along with good flexibility and high initial cutting action. The aluminum oxide abrasive has a high strength resin bond that minimalizes grit shedding, and an advanced clog resistant coating. Offered on both D and B weight latex papers, it comes in grits ranging from 40 to .

Norton Abrasives (nortonabrasives.com) introduced its new RazorStar line of highly aggressive discs and belts in January. The collection was designed for metalworking, but that won&#;t stop renovators, refinishers, wood carvers and other woodshop pros from using them when they need to shape or remove a lot of wood quickly. The discs and belts have an engineered, shaped, ceramic grain that cuts quickly but doesn&#;t generate too much heat.

The new RazorStar line of aggressive abrasion products from Norton was intended for metal but will find many uses in woodshops.

Courtesy of Norton Abrasives

DeWalt (dewalt.com) introduced the new Elite Series of abrasive grinding wheels last May. While their primary purpose is not abrading wood, they can be quite useful on the jobsite when dealing with demolition issues, or in the shop when working with mixed media materials. The new wheels have a Pressure Pact design that boasts high grain density with increased grain availability, for higher performance and longer life. They also have self-sharpening crystalline grains that enable fast grinding.

The new G from Grizzly Industrial (grizzly.com) is a 20&#; variable speed disc sander. The 2-hp, single-phase machine has both X and Y miter slots, a tilting table, and a built-in motor brake.

And for shops with unusual abrasive challenges, Laguna Tools (lagunatools.com) makes hundreds of sanding accessories plus machines, including single and double brush sanders. These can often handle shapes and challenges that standard abrasive machines just can&#;t tackle.  

This article was originally published in the March issue.

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