May 22, 2008

Mirka Abranet Sheet Sanding Kit

Sanding joint compound can get pretty messy. We recently did some work in a small bathroom and even with the Shop Vac right up next to the sandpaper, the room still ended up looking like someone had walked in and detonated a bag of flour. This experience, which we've had about 1,000 times, led us to do some research on dustless hand sanding and as a result, we discovered Mirka's Abranet Sheet Sanding System.

Essentially, it's a sanding block with a vacuum port. The abrasive sheets are made of a mesh with thousands of small holes, meaning for easier sanding and far more efficient dust collection, not to mention a longer life for the sheet.

The kit, which looks like it comes with three sizes of sanding blocks, some abrasive sheets, and a vacuum hose costs about $150. A high price, but if it actually works, it might be worth not having to deal with the mess that sanding makes.

The whole concept sounds to us like a great idea, but we really couldn't find much more information on the product. It appears that the abrasive pads are available in stores, but as far as the sanding blocks go, we couldn't find anything other than a .pdf file on their website. We even tried calling them earlier in the week, but haven't heard back.

The promotional flier is here (pdf).

Abranet abrasive sheets at Amazon

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Posted by Tool Snob at May 22, 2008 5:11 AM

Comments

I've tried Shop-Vac's Dustless Hand Sander with mixed results. They claim 90% dust reduction, but in my experience 2/3 reduction is more accurate. Disadvantages are that it's not pole-mountable, and the bulk of the unit makes it tough to reach some areas. It's a low-cost attachment that uses standard sanding screens. Not a total solution by any means, but it's useful in some applications.

http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Vac-Dustless-Sander-91980/dp/B0008JF968

Posted by: Bugler at May 26, 2008 5:02 PM

I specialise in hand-painted kitchens and we sand between coats 3 full days a week. We tried abranet connected to a vac. it doesnt eliminate dust totally, but it prevents the dust that isnt extracted from getting into the air, which for a painter is a god send. From what I can see from sanding without a vac attached, when you sand, the dust accumulates into clumps and falls through the abranet holes onto the ground and not into the general atmosphere. It comes in all grades, and I will never use any other sort of abrasive again, abranet is absolutely the best thing to happen to my business.

Posted by: andy at May 21, 2009 2:48 PM