This $.07 Upgrade Will Save You Hours

four years ago Mike Taylor turned the woodworking world upside down by introducing us to a product known as thorium cubitron after extensive testing calculating removal rates he was able to provide compelling data that entered the age-old question if premium purchases actually save you money in the long run but then things got crazy because Jonathan Katz Moses verified these test results and not one but two amazing videos even employing the help of robots but I think they missed something really important and I want to discuss that today plus help you decide which sandpaper is right for your shop and introduce you to a new product that might just turn us all upside down again first up you need to have an understanding of how sandpaper works this will provide better insights into why certain brands outperform the competition at a basic level sandpaper is reasonably easy to understand there is an abrasive material stuck to some type of backing and the cheaper the materials use the worse the Sandpaper the worse the Sandpaper the more time you spend sanding with inconsistent results so what are the cheaper Interiors you need to be on the lookout for traditional lower to mid-grade sandpapers generally sold at home centers are on Amazon use aluminum oxide as the abrasive material and just so we're clear the abrasive is what actually cuts the wood fibers a bonding agent is applied to a paper backing and then the aluminum oxide is electrostatically charged and jumps up onto the paper where it hears with the bonding agent voila sandpaper as the price points to increase different abrasive materials and backings are used and we'll discuss that later on but what about grits what is it great anyways very simply the lower the grit the coarser the Sandpaper and the more material you will remove the higher the grit the smoother the surface to get a uniform grip from one sheet to the next the abrasive material is sent through a sifting machine and the filters only allow specific size particles to pass through the actual size of the grit is then calculated by how many particles of the abrasive can fit through a one inch square filter so on your standard 80 grit sandpaper 80 pieces of aluminum oxide can fit through that square let's go back to their test results and I'll leave links to their findings if you want to review for yourself later since the overall goal of sanding is to remove material while leveling and smoothing a surface the most important metric was cost per gram of wood removed just because a sandpaper is expensive doesn't mean it actually works well and vice versa for the lower end for instance on the cheap side at a measly 80 cents per disk you can become the proud owner of the lovely Bosch sandpaper sadly it removed the least amount of material by a long shot resulting in one of the highest costs per gram removed at over 58 cents conversely the winners of the test while more expensive on a per disk basis removes so much more material that their cost per gram removed came in at three to four cents quite a bit less than 58. now as a general rule of thumb after about 25 minutes or so of sanding even the best performing disc has reduced its Effectiveness by around 50 percent so once you get halfway through a podcast change out your disk because you're going to spend more time sanding than necessary but what didn't they cover in my opinion the missing piece from their chest was analyzing the Finish Left Behind from each paper removing material is important but if it's too aggressive and there are visible scratch patterns that's not very helpful to keep this kosher I'll be sanding the same board using my Standard Process I start with scrubbing lines all over the work surface the idea here is once the lines have disappeared you sanded that area enough and it's time to move on I do this in between each grit I started with 80. this is 120. then 150 and finally 180. as far as technique is concerned no reason to wiggle your sander around or push down let the weight of the sander do the work moving about one inch per second I also want to compare the results of a sander not hooked up to a dust collector so moving this operation outside and going through the same process while I'm out here since it's a lovely day I figured why not show everyone how bad cheap sandpaper from Amazon is oh by the way if you want to win 250 000 which would probably cover sandpaper for life jackery will be giving you a chance to win that plus a travel trailer in their Cyber Monday live stream you can also take advantage of unprecedented discounts I'll leave links to that in the description below I'm enjoying sunbathing and standing outside thanks to their 1000 Pro it's small and compact while still delivering hours of cordless power featuring 1000 watt hours of capacity with four USB and three AC plugs there's so many times when I'm too lazy to drag around long extension cords so having something light and portable that I can leave in the shop will be perfect the unit charges in under two hours when you hook it up to the wall or if you're feeling really awesome bring it outside and charge it up using these solar panels which provides power anywhere maybe you want to do a sanding test by a river or in the mountains now you can point being stop being a neanderthal and get yourself portable power thanks to jackery for sponsoring this video so why did the 3M sandpapers outperform the competitors for starters the abrasives are a blend of aluminum oxide and ceramic ceramic is more expensive but very hard which is important in sandpaper but the real Secret Sauce is their cubatron 2 technology standard ceramic is rough and irregular shaped unlike the Precision shaped grain that looks like a bunch of tiny triangles or tortilla chips the tiny tortilla chips are designed to slice the surface of the material instead of plowing through like you see on the screen now as the Sandpaper is used and wears down those microscopic tortilla chips are brittle and designed to leave a new sharp edge when they break instead of dulling which quickly turns your sandpaper into just paper I guess this is really stale the first three on discs to take the woodworking World by storm was the 775l which everyone refers to as cubotron but that's not actually the name that's just the technology on the plus side it features a tear resistant film backing so it's less likely to fray when sanding edges or something sharp this is a key point we'll touch on in a bit because of the laser cut spiral hole design you don't need to waste time lining up the pattern with your sander and that's always a plus when managing frustration levels additionally the backing and design allows you to use the 775l without the inclusion of a dust collector but just because you can doesn't mean you should I would always advise hooking your tool up whenever possible because this will extend the life of your sandpaper and give you faster more consistent results I'm sorry battery powered standard people okay so it's not all good what about the cons this is the most expensive disc because it combines excellent durability cut quality and dust collection into one slick package but you're going to pay a premium price for a premium product this costs 50 percent more than the 710w it's not the best option if you work with resinous softwoods like Pine because those species cause a disc to clog up prematurely requiring more frequent and costly changes finally the 775l does have a steroid soap based coating to keep material from sticking to the disc the only downside is that if you don't clean off your work Surface after sanding there is a potential for a residue to be left behind and interfere with your finish jumping over to net backed discs for a quick history lesson the folks over at merka were the first to bring us to Market and owned the patent for years but once that expired in 2015 companies like 3M were able to release their own version the main benefit to a net disk is superior dust collection instead of relying on holes for dust to pass through the entire disc is essentially a bunch of holes but there is a downside to that these discs are designed to be hooked up to a vacuum without one they will clog up prematurely so again if you're one of those folks who doesn't like cords and hoses don't use these because you're going to burn through them faster and spend more time sanding additionally netback discs are more likely to shorten the life of your Sanders pad so I'd always use a pad saver that costs only six dollars or so to replace versus the 20 to 30 dollars here in fact even if you're not using a net disk it's a good habit to get into 3M currently offers two net-backed discs and we will start with the wildly popular 710w now a quick disclaimer I have no affiliation with 3m and no one is paying me to say any of this this video is based on facts thorough tests in my experience you've probably heard of the 710w referred to in The Woodworking circles as extract however extract is not the actual product name that refers to the benefits of excellent dust collection when using 3m's net back discs companies like to Market this as dust free sanding but that's it should just be called less Dusty sanding but what you gain in dust collection you generally lose in material removal that's because the round fibers of a net back discs can't hold as many abrasives as a nice flat surface found on their film counterparts so how does the 710w remove the same amount of material as a 775l the secret is this chevron pattern that lays on top of the round fibers and provides a nice flat area for more tiny tortilla chips to adhere to more tiny tortilla chips standing straight up and perpendicular to the work surface means faster cutting and since net back discs are cheaper to produce the 710w is 30 percent less than the 775l however cheaper isn't always better because there are downsides here first up since more abrasives are stuck on the surface of these net disks they're more likely to fall off during regular sanding anyone who uses the 710w has probably seen little fragments of purple grit Left Behind if you don't blow or vacuum that away before moving up to a higher grit you risk leaving behind scratch marks that will show up when finishes later applied net disk edges are much more prone to fraying and eventually tearing so if you're doing anything other than sanding big flat surfaces it most likely will maximize the life of the disc and finally because these 775l and 710w are so aggressive you may need to sand to a higher growth than normal to ensure all of your scratch patterns are actually gone Show an example of that in a minute you've probably been wondering about the new product I mentioned at the beginning of the video meet the 310w another net disk but unlike the 710 this does not have the Chevron pattern on top sadly the 310w wasn't included in the original Grand remove test because it wasn't available fortunately Mike Taylor still has the same piece of ash from his original trials and was able to recreate the tests for all of you at home and the results are interesting on average the 775l and 710 removed around 92 grams of material after 25 minutes of sanding for an average removal cost of three to four cents per gram removed the 310w removed 57 grams in the same amount of time now you might be saying that's not good but here's a little context 57 grams removed still puts us in the top tier of everyone else including outperforming the likes of festivals grenade and murka's abernet and here's the kicker it's quite literally a fraction of the price the Festool costs a dollar 33 and the merca 80 cents respectively 3ms 310w 45 cents per disc which makes this the cheapest disc on a cost per gram removed on the market at just 2 cents thank you Ms veto time to review the sanding samples from earlier and hang in there because what I found ultimately made me change my original script and recommendation I wrote before recording the only way to see what's happening on the surface is by using a raking light do not attempt this with overhead bulbs only if you're upgrading the papers based on visible scratches the clear loser is the 775l take a look at this or that that's a bad one too and there were more but you get the point the 775l I sanded outside with no vacuum hooked up had the same amount of scratches but was noticeably rougher to the touch the Amazon paper didn't have the Deep gouges but a lot of spots that were really blah looking and it took so much longer to actually sand than everything else next up would be the 710w there were a couple minor scratches but not nearly as deep or noticeable and they would most likely stand out if you jump to another grit but the 310w that was something I look at that sample for 20 plus minutes it is Flawless there's not a single visible scratch so does that mean the 310w wins the sand off no because what about how they feel now the Amazon piece is just trash and same with the no vacuum sample a little better than that is the 310w and the 775 and the 710 are like glass relative to everything else one thing to note when I first finished the 775l felt rougher than the 710 but after a lot of vacuuming there's no noticeable difference between the two so there's certainly some truth to much improved dust collection with a net disk so which one should you buy if you're on a budget or work with residence Woods often Like Home Depot 2x4s I would recommend the 310w it's the best bang for your buck on the market by a large margin and if they rip or clog up early from sap it's not going to cost you much plus I'm going to assume you're using some type of a film finish with your American flag noodle boards so the rougher feel I just talked about won't end up mattering now if your builds have a lot of sharp edges or you won't be hooked up to a vacuum woodturners I'm looking at you the 775l makes sense just be very careful of the deeper scratch patterns and be prepared to jump up a grit or two higher if you do a lot of big flat builds epoxy rubber capable people and you use a mix of hard and soft Woods I'm not sure there's a better disc on the market than the 710w it's reasonably priced removes a ton of material and has a pretty damn good finish to boot yes the edges will Rip but I think these tests have confirmed you're always compromising something and if the compromise for net disks is they tear faster than film-backed so be it for some reason people become enamored with getting hours days even multiple projects out of a single disc but the data shows you're better off switching after 25 to 30 minutes at the end of the day we all want to spend less time sanding but with better results for the rest of the year all three of these options are on sale for 20 off at Taylor toolworks so follow the link in the description below I promise you will not be disappointed but if you do want to see me be really disappointed after a build go check out this video see ya

Channel: Lincoln St. Woodworks

Views: 752,222

Keywords: sandpaper, sanding, woodworking, 3M, xtract, cubitron, cubitron ii, cubitron xtract, cubitron sanding discs, how to sand wood, 710w, 310w, 775l

Id: 7W--YEYzQQY

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 21 2022