Abranet

It has been cold lately. A lot of nights, its sub zero out in my workshop. This has cut down on my shop time. Most of my time has been spent sanding. The chair I built back in November had a myriad of little marks, patches of tear-out, etc. I made a little scraper to get into nooks and crannies, but here are a lot of spots only sanding could reach.

Like most people, I’m not a big fan of sanding. Its just something that has to be done. One thing that has made the job a lot more pleasant is Abranet. Abranet is a mesh like material that you use just like sandpaper. When using by hand, it hardly ever clogs. If it does, you just shake it a little and its straight back to work. It lasts almost forever.

I’m more likely to lose track of a disc than to actually wear it out. I buy it in 150mm discs intended for power sanders. They are just the right size to wrap around a cork sanding block and use them by hand. For curved surfaces I tend to wrap it around some rolled up scotchbrite. That keeps it firm, while allowing it to conform to curved surfaces.

Abranet bends and conforms just like fabric. If I want to wrap some around a dowel to work the inside of a curve finger pressure is enough to do it easily. It tends not to tear, and its easy to cut with scissors if you want a smaller piece. It was really designed for power sanders. Apparently the mesh construction allows dust removal systems to work well. I have no idea, I have only used it by hand. The big downside is the price. It costs a lot more than standard sandpaper, but it lasts so long it is really the cheaper option.

A strong recommendation from me. Next time you are running low on sandpaper, grab a few discs and try it out.

This is what it looks like. As you can see its pretty much transparent. It can clog, but not easily. If it does, just whack it off something and it will be clear in a second.