Home Depot, who we currently have a paid partnership with, sent over a variety of tools and accessories for testing these past few months. You’ll see a catch-all roundup tomorrow, and the next quarter’s round of tools have already started to arrive.
If I had to pick the top most-exciting of the items they sent over for consideration, it would have to be the Diablo SandNet discs. I’ve been curious about these for a while.
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To be frank, I haven’t had much sanding time recently, and so I couldn’t put in much SandNet vs. traditional sandpaper testing done. But I’ve seen enough to get even more exciting over them.
There are 3 things you need to know about these Diablo SandNet sanding dics.
First, they’re much more expensive than traditional sanding discs. A 50-pack of regular Diablo discs is $21. A 10-pack of these is $15. So that comes down to $1.50 per disc, compared to $0.42 per disc.
BUT, they’re said to last a lot longer – and I believe it. In one application, sanding paint off of MDF, the Diablo SandNet is shown to last 10X longer. I can’t embed the promo demo video, but you can see it on Home Depot’s site.
So you in theory get 10X longevity vs. ~4X the price.
The second most important thing to note is that you get a universal-style design. It doesn’t matter how many holes are in your random orbit sander’s pad, because these discs will work with 5 and 8 hole patterns just the same. These discs are for 5-inch random orbital sanders.
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You have to use an application pad, but it comes with the discs. The reusable application pad goes between your sander’s platen and your SandNet discs.
Dust collection seems to be decent, if not better.
You can rinse out the SandNet discs, shake them out (I wouldn’t recommend that), or vacuum them clean.
The mesh discs are fairly sturdy, and while I didn’t destroy any of them yet, I’d save them for use on relatively smooth surfaces. If you have some really coarse work ahead of you, perhaps start off with traditional sandpaper.
If the type of sanding you do tends to tear the edges or faces of regular sandpaper, these probably aren’t for you. Or at least, be more careful.
Last holiday season, there were Diablo sandpaper packs with bonus free SandNet discs. Maybe those promo packs will come back again this year. That lowers the risk-to-try.
I have some finish sanding ahead of me. While I have months’ worth of stockpiled Festool sanding discs, I must admit that I’m itching to try the finer grits of Diablo’s SandNet mesh sandpaper. 80 grit isn’t anywhere as useful for the kinds of projects I work on.
Price: $15 per 10-pack
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As a reminder, this test sample was provided as part of a current paid partnership program with Home Depot. As part of the program, I am obligated to review some of what is provided. Which tools to review, and what to say, is entirely up to me.
Also, if you have any test requests, please let me know! I won’t have much time in the next few weeks, but towards the end of the year I will be recovering a big chunk of time every day. Expect to see more photos, and a faster pace as I plow through our backlog. Maybe some videos too.
Lastly, I should point out – these aluminum oxide sanding discs are marketed as for use on wood. I haven’t used or tested them on anything else yet. If you have a testing request, I can try to accommodate it.
fred
Nice to see an alternative supplier to Mirka’s Abranet discs which are a bit more expensive (at least on Amazon). The Abranet discs do come in an assortment pack:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dtools&field-keywords=9A-232-APRP
Chris
Looks interesting. I always have the problem of he sand paper getting destroyed around the dust collection holes.
What’s the selection grit wise?
Stuart
80 to 400 grit. (The HD link has a drop-down.)
Whiskey and wood
I have a bunch of mirka abranet I’d be happy to mail you a few sheets to see a side by side comparison. I’ve mostly switched over to festool granat for lifespan, but I really like the abranet as well, let me know and I’ll send some your way!
Stuart
On the same note, would you want to try a pack of these, on me?
I’ve been curious about the Abranet, but never enough to pull the trigger. Plus, I moved to a Festool sander, and that pretty much requires you to stay within the brand. I like their Granat, but trust Brilliant for more of what I do. The bare wood, Rubin? sees a lot of use too.
Whiskey and wood
Sure! I’ll send you an email shortly!
fred
I really like the Abranet – 400 and 600 for French Polish work – knocking down sheen on shellac (varnish too) between coats. It does not seem to (no scientific controlled experiments mind you) gum up as quickly as paper or cloth backed abrasives. Its also easier to knock what does accumulate off and prolong the life of the disc. Maybe it has slightly better heat transfer or less heat production than conventional paper – hence less gumming. Perhaps one could design an experiment to test this out.
Patrick H
How does it do on lacquer Fred if you have tried it, I have a bunch of shelves I have been meaning to refinish and they have a thick coat on them. Just haven’t gotten around to giving it a look but I’m not looking forward to quickly killing sand paper, this might be the thing.
fred
Never tried Abranet in that application. I’ve used them on new work only – mostly the finer grits for final finishing between coats of shellac.
Rami
Sooo… how much does Abranet cost in USA? In Finland (home of Mirka) Abranet only costs about double as compared to normal Mirka papers.
Andrew LB
A few months back I bought a box of 50 sheets of Mirka Autonet 120 grit (basically abranet, but i think its slightly more durable) for $14.50 on amazon. That was a sweet deal and can only find that box for $25.00 now. Boxes of 50 sheets of autonet run from $20-$30 each.
fred
“Plus, I moved to a Festool sander, and that pretty much requires you to stay within the brand.”
I guess that Festool would want you to do that. Maybe if they knew that you use something else and the sander fails within warranty there might be consequences. But, there is quite a bit of discussion on the internet from folks who have used both Abranet discs and Granat discs. Comments I’ve seen in the past suggest that there is no consensus – but some clearly like one or the other better. My experience has been that Abranet works well with Festool sanders on flat surfaces – not so well where you can catch it on an edge or sharp point.
Jeremy
Stuart, I would love to try some for a comparison test!
To complicate things a bit: Abranet is only the midgrade, they actually make 3 grades of mesh.
They have fancy marketing terminology and create confusion, but it boils down to this:
Autonet:40% cheaper per sheet, cuts faster at the start than abranet, dulls faster. Use on materials that will gum up pads(soft paints, natural varnishes, waxy or dirty surfaces), tear disks or smaller jobs where you won’t use more than 2 disks and don’t want to cross contaminate with the next job. Very common in industry use where contamination and fresh pads are more valued. Excellent for those of us who pay people to work with tools, as they are often less careful of how they treat supplies.
This is the best choice for most DIY work as well, best on unfinished wood for the cost, though they only really advertise Abranet, probably because of the higher profit.
Abranet: Middle of the road, decent life, decent price, decent sharpness.
Good for hard finished wood as long as it’s a finish that won’t gum at all(lacquer etc) at a fair price.
Abranet Ace: The king of the mesh. Ceramic like 3m Cubitron, lasts incredibly well, on gelcoats I find I get 4 disks to do the job of a 50 pack of Autonet. Very expensive in comparison, best suited to sanding automotive paints and gelcoat or extremely hard finishes like factory finished wood flooring. I will typically do my first pass of coarsest grit with Autonet/Abranet to get any tackiness/wax/surfacing agent/gumming out of the way, then carry on with Abranet Ace from there.
Mesh abrasives work great on the festool sanders too, we use them on the rotex 5″, I don’t bother with papers with the exception of cubitron ceramic from 3m for rough shaping, and festool 80. Biggest problem with all the mesh papers is cutting off the tips of your velcro on the pads. So make sure you use an interface pad!!! Nobody likes to ruin a 60$ backing pad after only a couple boxes of disks instead of a 5$ interface pad. We burn through approx 40 boxes a year between the festool and 3 mirkas. You won’t see the full advantage on a 6 hole backing pad, I’ve installed a 3m one on a mirka to test, the hole positions matter, but it’s still better.
fred
Thanks for the reminder that Mirka makes many more types and grades of abrasives – both in the Abranet Line (Abranet, Abranet Ace , Abranet Ace HD, Abranet Max, Abranet SIC NS, Abranet Soft) plus others too:
https://www.mirka.com/en-US/us/abrasives/abrasives/#/
charles
wow, did not know any of that. I need Autonet for my guys!
Whiskey and Wood
Hey Stuart, sent an email via the contact form, and didnt hear back so I’ll try and get an address and mail some off to you!
Doresoom
I haven’t tried these out yet, but it looks like they should offer a greater dust collection ability than Diablo’s discs that compromise between 5 and 8 hole sanders. I have an 8 hole sander and those multi-hole compatible discs cut available airflow cross section by 40%.
Nathan
so you say there is an interface pad to use between these and your sander plate?
does it have holes that meet both patterns?
I sort of like the idea of these too – but never tried them either – been waiting to burn though my current pile of disks. Do these come in other sizes – specifically 6 inch.
The yeti
3m sells some strange plastic sand “paper” pads here. . I have tried them to mixed results .
This product you show here appears a bit better in that it’s a breathable mesh . Not requiring holes . I’m gonna keep my eye out for these . I lifted do sanding projects in the winter .
Benjamen
Yeah, but the interface pad is “required” and does have a hole pattern . They say something like if you don’t use the pad you’ll get abnormal wear on your sanding pad and have to replace it faster.
There are 4 big holes which line up with an 8 hole pattern. The other 4 holes line up with smaller holes. If you have a 5 hole pattern, only one of the big holes line up and you are left with 4 smaller holes. And of course it won’t work with Festool because their holes are farther outward.
I’ll post a photo in the forum: here’s the link:
https://discuss.toolguyd.com/t/diablo-sandnet-pad-hole-pattern/1001?u=benjamenjohnson
fred
I wonder if the Mirka intermediary pad (which has many more holes) will work with the Diablo discs. I’ve used the Mirka pad and Abranet discs on Festool sanders – and the combination seemed to work OK.
The yeti
Or if that didn’t work. Couldn’t u just drill some matching holes in the pad ?
Nathan
3M plastic sanding pads. I like it. I use scotchbrite in a number of places and I do indeed like it better for somethings – especially dry wall repair.
Benjamen
I generally like these new sanding discs. I’ve used about 4 of them so far and I don’t get anywhere near the 10x life they claim — maybe 2 to 3x.
What happens is the edges start shredding, even if you are sanding relatively smooth surfaces. They are still useful, but you can’t get into inside edges anymore.
What I do like is that the performance of the sanding disc doesn’t seem to drop as you use it. It doesn’t gum up and it doesn’t lose it’s grit.
Grit for grit it seems like the SandNet is more aggressive than Diablo’s regular paper though. Maybe it’s because the dust has someplace to go and doesn’t get in the way.
SS
I’m a bit of a DIY’er so correct me if I’m wrong… but sanding screens (assuming that’s what these are comparable to) always struck me as something that wasn’t for general purpose material removal like stripping paint – which would conventionally be for sandpaper. I thought the point was screens will let you take a slightly rougher cut specifically WITHOUT stripping. E.g., a screen and coat on a wood floor might be cut with an 60-80 grit screen to get good adhesion for a fresh coat without taking everything off… which is preferable for adhesion to something like a 150 grit paper. Clearly, if you use 60-80 grit PAPER you’re now getting into removing the finish entirely.
I grabbed a pack of the coarse dewalt screens with the intention of using it for things like prepping aluminum for primer, overcoating stair treads, working on furniture, etc. Fine screens (I thought) would be good for fast sands between coats, even at like a 120 grit, since the point isn’t to remove material but knock down imperfections quickly and provide good adhesion prep.
Am I mistaken? Are these screens different?
Shawn
They aren’t kidding about the interface pad. I destroyed the factory pad on my Makita and my Milwaukee sanders. Less than 10 disks used and both pads required replacement.
I was happy with the performance although the edges crumple and fold on irregular edges or when you sand inside corners.
Nigel
Jeremy, thanks for the info on the various levels of Mirka mesh sanding disks.
Klingspor’s has just started offering KlingNet mesh sanding disks – 25 pack is 19.95 for 5″, 80 to 1000 grit
I use Abranet disks for sanding green wood bowls after turning – the open mesh doesn’t gum/load up like regular sanding paper.