MASTER Sanding Cabinets. Foam Abrasives 101

foreign [Applause] [Music] Curtis you know we're here upstairs in the factory at Oneida we've got um some pretty cool things behind us and I want to talk about foam abrasives because foam abrasives have been really game changing in the Gap net repaint um industry for us and how we go about you know prepping our cabinets and we have up here this is a whole raw sheet of um a half inch foam abrasive right here yo can you just give me um well we got a little three by four right here right here that came out of that that's going to come out of that right there and so can you just uh talk a little bit about this product that you Anita makes right here in New York and um what's so special about it and why it's so really to me awesome yeah you hit it on the head foam products really revolutionized sanding especially in between coats of finish you're always going to need to go to a coat of abrasive like the film tech for your initial cut down but if I had to pick one item for what your customers do it would definitely be foam you know typically fine is going to be best for in between coats of paint where you want to get in the very fine super fine more in between coats of of sealer and the thing about foam is it's very nice in that there's three densities so if you're doing all flat work the little thinner five millimeter foam is perfect for that because you're not really needing any type of flexibility you're not trying to get into a profile now for profile sanding the echo silk plus foam comes into a in a half inch which is a is a CL is an open cell foam so it's really really flexible and then what's really lately what we're seeing I'm sure you're seeing a lot of is Shaker doors have become the thing so you've got you've got that that Center panel that's offset and down and that's where we come out with the 10 millimeter so it looks just like this as if it's a closed cell foam so it's nice and firm and that's perfect to drop in and you'll go in and sand uh that that insert panel and you're able to bump the rest of the cabinet with the foam instead of the sander and this being half inch is just for profiles it's perfect you can see it just just molds right into any kind of profile yeah I mean we use the half inch foam for you know all your routed edges rounded edges and stuff it conforms to all those profiles and you literally on a cabinet door you don't have to like hand sand anything a three by four sander you know um with you know a half inch foam sometimes where this is a five millimeter foam you guys have a 10 millimeter foam so there's three different sizes this one is the close density um the 10 millimeter is closed density but that's open cell right there so I mean it's the three of them is going to do any thing you need to do but then you could also use filmtech also so can you just talk a little bit about the abrasive so what type of abrasive is on the top of that what type of I guess we'll we'll make it simple sand is it sand it is not sand it's aluminum oxide and I imagine um that it is one of the relatively friable aluminum oxides so it's going to crack and resharpen these you're like you really want that in between coats of finish so you don't cut through the really unique thing about these if I can get this thing apart is and the reason why it's you know when you start talking about foam and the reason it's such a game changer is in the past everybody did this with cut sheets your folding sheets maybe a sponge but this stuff is coated to basically a rubber substrate so it stretches that's why you'll get 30 to 40 percent more life out of this because as it's running it's stretching so you're not loading it up right and we talked before about loading and how the the the substrates you're sanding whether it's raw wood or whether it's a finish it's going to tend to load up in between those drains but because this is stretching it's really helping free that loading up but this has just changed everything you've gone from completely having to everything by hand to being able to use a machine and even in large cabinet companies now you'll see them on a sanding on a line with that machine going to work just like your customers do you know when they're refinishing a cabinet yeah and I notice and when you're talking about loading um when I'm doing like a say a full set of kitchen cabinets the um half inch sponges I don't think I use more than three of them and they don't load they don't rip and tear and so it's kind of amazing because I don't know how Unida makes any money doing this because we just sell a lot of them yeah because I I don't go through very many of them it's amazing how long they last they don't load and stuff so it's if you haven't tried them the three by four sander coupled with a half inch sponge it is literally a game changing tool you got to give it a try and I think you you touched on that I think um you'll shake your Sal doors if you've got any flat sanding these things work for that too but I think you know um I guess if you could touch on it just a little bit you know if you're trying to eliminate grain like on an Oaks outdoor are you going to stand with a um half inch spawn if you want a flat surface I mean is that ideal or not ideal um if it's a relatively flat part I would not use a half inch the problem the thing about half inch it's great for the profiles but you lose a lot of cut it's not nearly as aggressive as your 10 millimeter and your five millimeter will be in fact I would only recommend it for for profiles a lot of times Crown moldings is nice but you do lose a lot of cut because it's receding so much back into the foam whereas these are going to be a lot firmer a lot firmer and for us you know you want to firm a surface as you can get when you're sanding it's just it's a better platen it's a nice hard surface to sand on so that's definitely going to do better on on on something flat as far as cutting down the grain yeah when we're trying to eliminate grain especially like on old cabinets it's pretty popular to take oak cabinets um grain fill them sand them and then a lot of the customers don't even want them to have that profile the oak I mean I'm actually going to instead of a foam abrasive I'm using uh unida's film Tech and film Tech is something better for just really getting that Ultra flat surface yeah if you want to flatten out you still coat it is always going to be more aggressive and like you said that film Tech to me is I know I'll talk a lot about it but it's just my favorite material because it's just it's that perfect sweet spot you get a good finish like paper you get the longevity and durability of a cloth and it flat it stands really really flat and it's quick this is not going to cut as quick as a uh as film Tech will cut but I I don't know I think and we do still see a lot of film Tech used in between coats of finish I mean foam is great it's not always the the the perfect thing for it in a lot of case it is if I had to pick two things in in your industry it would be film tech for my cut down and all my in-between coats of finish would be with a with a sponge type product yeah so um there you have it they've got some pretty cool information um about you know foam abrasives if you haven't tried them you got to try them thank you guys very much for watching this video if you got any questions about um these abrasives phone abrasives just leave it down in the comment section below we'll answer your questions we'll be right here to help you out so let us know [Music]