Efficiency of different brands of abrasives

[afish]

I dont think there is a big cost difference in the per disc price between the 3m and festool discs and Im not convinced the 3m lasts that much longer than the festool to skew the cost per gram that much. However,  I do like 3m products and never been disappointed.  The festool paper actually looks cheaper if you buy it in the 100 count since the 3m is sold only in 50ct. that I can find easily but does look like its available in 250ct. too but that's a lot of paper to stock in one grit for me.  Its not to often you get to say festool is cheaper.  The sander itself however, is much cheaper.  The 3m 6" 3/16" orbit is $190 its pneumatic though compared to the ETS EC 125/5 for 425ish.  I have used lots of air DA's and probably actually prefer it for shop use but will be trading price and shop use for portability since you need a large compressor for air DA's its not going to travel.  However its rare I need to bring a sander anywhere and if I do I could just grab the ETS125req  and keep the 6" in the shop.  So many decisions whichever I choose Im sure to regret...

 

[Stan Tillinghast]

Cheese, I was comparing the O’Reilly price with the Amazon price which is IIRC $58 instead of $71.

 

[Michael Kellough]

[member=73094]afish[/member] what is a “DA”?

 

[afish]

Sorry its short for dual action, random orbit same thing.  I think it might be more of a auto body term. Where Im from everyone just called it a DA and they knew what you were talking about.

 

[Cheese]

Here ya go Michael, here's a shot of an older National Detroit with DA as part of its nomenclature. I believe Dynabrade, another US company, now owns National Detroit.

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[Michael Kellough]

Sorta figured that (DA=dual action) from the context but the appropriate words didn’t come to me.

 

[Cheese]

FWIW....here are the 3M part numbers for Cubitron II sanding discs.

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[leakyroof]

I’ve used the grinding wheels of Cubitron II , bought it as a trial test  after seeing a video demo of 3M showing off a solid rod of metal being gobbled down with the then new Cubitron II. It does grind metal well, very impressive.
I’ve since used a few small diameter sanding discs, in a non Festool pneumatic sander,  for auto body work with an older VW , but tend to use Granat since it works so well with my Festool sanders.