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Identifying Abrasives and Preventing Loading

6:19
12:35
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Sanding Tips | Sand Like A PRO

What happens here

To distinguish between abrasive types: cloth abrasives are typically brown and feel distinctly like fabric, often not 'sterated' (referring to a top-coat that reduces loading). Paper abrasives can be identified by their tendency to tear easily. Film abrasives, like Unida's Filmtec (blue) or Ekasilk (yellow), are much harder to tear and have a distinct feel due to their plastic backing. 'Loading' occurs when sanding dust or particles get trapped between the abrasive grains, effectively dulling them and preventing them from cutting. This leads to increased heat, burning, and an ineffective sanding process. To prevent loading, it's crucial to use light pressure and choose an abrasive with an appropriate 'steration' (lubricant) topcoat, which helps materials slide out from between grains. Filmtec, with its advanced resin-based steration, provides superior coolant properties, aiding in cooler operation and preventing loading. While some coatings may cure slowly, leading to unavoidable loading, using the right abrasive with good steration significantly helps to mitigate this issue. For quick identification, a simple test is to try tearing the abrasive: paper will tear easily, while film and cloth will be much more resistant.

Goal: Practical tips are provided for identifying different abrasive types, along with a detailed explanation of 'loading' and strategies to prevent this common sanding issue.

Tools and materials

  • Cloth Abrasive
  • Film Abrasive (e.g
  • Filmtec
  • Ekasilk)
  • Paper Abrasive

What they say

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really not not made for metal so just um to get back to you know the cloth um film Tech echostorm echostorm's paper on film Tech and um these are your guys's names for your products um it's for me it's easy to identify film Tech because it's blue at the storm because it's yellow um this is the cloth you know how how does like our viewers anybody wanted to know how do I know if this is cloth or not if I bought it from a different manufacturer if I went to a a hardware store how do I know whether I'm purchasing um film paper or cloth is It's probably hard to tell um unless it gives you that information on the package now cloth you'll always know because it's always going to be kind of this brown color and it's usually not steroided whereas these products are and what a steration means like this is really easy to see because it's still a carbide you see that white creamy look to it that goes back to again to try to reduce the heat that's actually almost like the easiest way to describe it's almost like putting a layer of soap on it so so it does two things it makes the product run cooler and it also helps the fibers or anything you're sanding to slide out from in between the grains now these are different this one is a top-sided uh steration just like that one so that's a after we make the product we come back with a final application and put that on the top the thing I love about film Tech I always go back to this because the steration is even better on this because it's done on the resins so you're getting that nice coolant added to it but that'll come off the top a lot easier whereas this stays in the product all the way through the use of the grain as far as knowing the difference if I if you had no other way to do it just take it and do this that's go to tear and this one you'll know you've got paper instead of film yeah because I know I yeah that's one way I do it and um you can take and tear the paper pretty easily in the film it's very difficult to tear I mean if you really you know torque on it and you're strong enough you can tear it um it's interesting the cloth so is the cloth not terrible cloth is very do you can tear it was very difficult to tear okay and as far as like that's a very flexible cloth is what you want to use on wood in case you got any profiles yeah because this this feels like it actually just feels like cloth so to me it feels so different than the paper and one way that's a good point so cloth is very typically for what you're…

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