Abrasives for ets 150/3

[Mac]

Hi all,

Am based in the UK, and am waiting for my new ets 150/3 to arrive. Never having used a festool sander before, I was wondering if anyone can steer me in the direction of the best all round paper to use. Am I right in thinking rubin is probably what I should be going for, and if so which grits would you suggest. I'll be doing general wood prep and finishing with it, some paint or varnish removal but not extensively...so nothing too exotic.

Also, has anyone found a good supplier of paper in the UK?

Thanks in advance,
Mac

 

[Five Star]

I dont know about the UK, But here in the states i just bought a promotion which included all different grit disks in a seperate systainer and a ets150/5 in a seperate systainer! I used it to sand stair treads and only used 2 disk 60 grit rubin! See if they have the promotions out there, its worh the extra dollars!

 

[Mac]

Hmm, that sounds tempting. Does the separate systainer have an inlay to hold all the papers or is it just a standard job?

Thanks for your thought.
Mac

 

[AlexThePalex]

Best all-round paper is Brilliant 2. Grits 80 and 120 should suffice for most jobs.

Rubin is better suited for bare wood they say, so if you do most work with bare wood get Rubin. However, with all other materials, Brilliant 2 outperforms Rubin and Brilliant 2 doesn't do too bad with wood either.

Anyway, you'll end up with a selection of different types and grits like all of us do. Start with the 10 piece packs first to try them out, don't go off buying the 50 or 100 packs right away.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Best all-round paper is Brilliant 2. Grits 80 and 120 should suffice for most jobs.

Rubin is better suited for bare wood they say, so if you do most work with bare wood get Rubin. However, with all other materials, Brilliant 2 outperforms Rubin and Brilliant 2 doesn't do too bad with wood either.

Anyway, you'll end up with a selection of different types and grits like all of us do. Start with the 10 piece packs first to try them out, don't go off buying the 50 or 100 packs right away.

I like Alex's advice for fitting your specific needs. I feel Cristal paper for the best all around abrasive Festool offers. Cristal can withstand tough jobs much better than Brilliant 2. The best advice I'd give is not to buy large qualities of a single type of paper yet. Instead buy small packs of every type and grit you think you might want. Festool offers an abrasive for almost every type of job so buy small so you feel you have to make one type of abrasive do a job it's not intended for.

On a related note, check out this thread I started last year, Rubin sandpaper, my relationship with it.

 

[Mac]

Thanks, Alex and Brice, this sounds like good advice. It's really hard to find places in the UK that supply small amounts though, unfortunately.  Still, I'm off to read the link now, which I'm looking forward to as your stuff is always so useful Brice.

Thanks for now, guys!

 

[AlexThePalex]

Cristal can withstand tough jobs much better than Brilliant 2.

That's absolutely true. When the surface gets a bit rougher, Cristal is my first choice but I always have to re-sand it again with Brilliant 2 to get a nice surface for painting.

Anyway, I think the entire approach of 'what is the best all-round paper' is wrong. There are quite a few types and the best solution is to get the specific type you need for the specific job.

Mac, if you need to read up on what kind of abrasives Festool offers and for what they are best suited, they made this brochure: http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/abrasives_brochure.pdf

Just start with the small packs. I got 3 Festool sanders now and I haven't bought a single package bigger than 10. I keep adding types and grits though. The collection's growing steadily.