Brillaint vs. Granat

bijeshj

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Jan 22, 2007
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199
Hi, need to replenish my sandpaper stock after my current project.

Use my RO125 mostly to sand wood and I have been using Rubin 50, 80 and Brilliant 120, 150, 180.

Should I restock with brilliant2 or Granat for sanding bare wood?

- Bijesh
 
I haven't tried Granat at those grits, but I use Rubin up to 180 and Brilliant 2 for 220 and 320 for sanding bare wood and I am very happy with the results.

I think most people would recommend Rubin over Brilliant for wood below 220.
 
Granat's great on wood, Brilliant's great on wood, Rubin is the best on wood.

Rubin only goes up to 180 though, above that you can choose Granat or Brilliant, makes no difference.
 
Sorry I'm late to the party. Granat is definitely the wonder abrasive in our line up. It can do it all and does it phenomenally well. That would be my recommendation, Granat in all of the grits. It's available all the way up to 1500 grit.
 
Shane Holland said:
Sorry I'm late to the party. Granat is definitely the wonder abrasive in our line up. It can do it all and does it phenomenally well. That would be my recommendation, Granat in all of the grits. It's available all the way up to 1500 grit.

Concur. I have been testing Granat in all available grits on all the sanders for 8 months.

To the extent that we can deal with the sensory experience of running non F sanders anymore, we have run it head to head with Mirka Goldflex and other of our previous contenders.

It would be conservative to say that we get twice the mileage with Granat versus anything else. And we regularly see 5x. What is cool is that the price is not 5x.

It is good on wood, especially prepping for stain grade or clear. That is where it rolls over and shows its soft cuddly belly, but it can also rear up and show its teeth for RAS-esque material removal, particularly adroit on any of the RO tools. Everything mid spectrum, ie finish sanding, in between coat sanding, you won't be changing it out very often.

And the hand sand pads are totally addictive, and cost quite a bit less than their gold counterparts.

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Shane Holland said:
Sorry I'm late to the party. Granat is definitely the wonder abrasive in our line up. It can do it all and does it phenomenally well. That would be my recommendation, Granat in all of the grits. It's available all the way up to 1500 grit.

Thanks - so I assume the recommendation is to get Granat for the all grits that I need - rather than Rubin and Brilliant?

Scott - saw your post right after I clicked save. Thanks - I think I will go with Granat.
 
Scott B. said:
Shane Holland said:
Sorry I'm late to the party. Granat is definitely the wonder abrasive in our line up. It can do it all and does it phenomenally well. That would be my recommendation, Granat in all of the grits. It's available all the way up to 1500 grit.

Concur. I have been testing Granat in all available grits on all the sanders for 8 months.

To the extent that we can deal with the sensory experience of running non F sanders anymore, we have run it head to head with Mirka Goldflex and other of our previous contenders.

It would be conservative to say that we get twice the mileage with Granat versus anything else. And we regularly see 5x. What is cool is that the price is not 5x.

It is good on wood, especially prepping for stain grade or clear. That is where it rolls over and shows its soft cuddly belly, but it can also rear up and show its teeth for RAS-esque material removal, particularly adroit on any of the RO tools. Everything mid spectrum, ie finish sanding, in between coat sanding, you won't be changing it out very often.

And the hand sand pads are totally addictive, and cost quite a bit less than their gold counterparts.

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Scott, thanks for that well written, comprehensive run down.  You make some great points that Granat lasts up to 5 x's longer in most applications but the cost is not there.  Goes right along with some points I made in the new Planex thread regarding the cost of the new drywall sander vs. the Porter Cable 7800.

We've been touting Granat as the do all.  More of an almost master of all trades, but Festool wouldn't keep all those other families of grits in the lineup if Granat was really as adept at the applications each of those particular abrasive types were meant for.  BUT, save some cash, it'll last longer and you only need one paper for juuuuuust about anything and everything.  How can you beat that.
 
As a matter of course, in product review writing, I do cost analysis, or roi analysis of the tools or products being tested.

I have read alot on this forum (and elsewhere) about the cost of Festool abrasives. I have even seen guys wanting dealers to crack open boxes and sell by the piece. Or guys going in on a box together to share the cost.

Prior to testing Granat, we had extensively used other common orbitals and abrasives.

Isn't the purchase price of THIS exactly the same per piece as THAT?

It is. $.56/pc.

Then, factor in the mileage difference. If conservatively Granat produced twice the mileage (it will), wouldn't it end up costing half as much to use? Thats without even factoring in the more than ancillary time savings of the rest of the Festool platform behind the abrasives (dust collection, lower surface temps, less load and swirl, therefore less sanding overall), less time swapping out and disposing of spanked discs, less time vacuuming up dust when you finish sanding...

This is just a quick little cost analysis, but we take it deeper. We even look at how many boxes of abrasives we have to run on a sander before the sander pays for itself. How many bags through an extractor, etc. I won't bore you all with those particulars, but you may not be surprised to hear that the numbers suggest that a sander can pay for itself well in advance of its warranty expiration, in some cases several times over.

Use of Granat does change each task. Production rates change.

Use of the whole system - sanders, abrasives and extractors - affects overall project numbers.

Your only hard choice is whether to use all this added value to give yourself a competitive edge in estimating and selling, or to let it settle in your margins, or boost them. It's nice to have options. Personally, I am not into working more efficiently and making less money as I do it. If a task took us an industry standard 6 hours without Festool, and we can cut it to two hours using Festool, then the price just went up. That is how I will pay for every piece of Festool on my wish list. I just need to find more projects where I can use a jigsaw and a circ saw.

That is how I evaluate tools. They have to be capable of being profitable tools, paying for themselves quickly, and making money for the rest of their lives.

Granat is a consumable, so it can really only be measured in terms of lifespan versus comparable consumables. But the sanders and extractors that I run with them are not consumables and are measured as above.

Sorry for the ramble. So many good threads here that get me thinking...
 
Granat is truly amazing.  I doubt that I will buy any of the other Festool choices ever again unless one of the experts discover a niche advantage with something else. 
 
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