A Look at Indasa Rhynogrip and Mirka Abranet Sanding Discs.

I had recently received some samples of Indasa Rhynogrip and Mirka Abranet sanding discs for my Festool 5" and 6" random orbit sanders. Having not gotten to use either of these products before I was excited to give them a try. I've seen Abranet at a local woodworking store in the past, but, to be completely honest I never heard of Indasa brand sanding discs.

Festool random orbit sanders a unique nine hole pattern limiting your options for different brand sanding discs. Indasa's Rhynogrip is one of the few sanding discs made to fit Festool sanders. Rhynogrip is a top bonded aluminum oxide, hook and loop disc. The backing seems to be a mid-weight paper that really stood up very well in all of the applications I used it for. I tested the Rhynogrip with: soft and hard woods, metal, auto body filler, wood filler, plastic, paint and other finishers with 80-150 grit discs. For my testing I took out one disc from each box to see it would perform on different materials. The sander I used was the Festool ETS150/3 attached to a Festool vacuum. First up, a glued-up panel of cherry. Starting with 80 grit to clean up the any leftover glue squeeze out and to flatten everything out. The 80 grit cut fast and made quick work of the panel. Moving through, 100, 120, and 150 was fast and results were perfect. The dust collection was just as good with the Rhynogrip as with Festool abrasives.

I used the same discs on a number of other materials. I was looking to see how well the abrasive and backing held up. For example, while sanding rusty sheet metal I wanted to know if the sharp edges would tear or rip the backing on the discs, or would sanding paint off a an old floor board would gum up the disc quickly. Turns out the Rhynogrip is more durable than I was expecting. The edge of the sheet metal didn't tear the discs at all. But what really surprised me was how well the discs resisted loading or gumming up.

I used 80 grit on this floor board to remove many years worth of old paint in a matter of minutes. If you look closely you'll see very little loading of the disc, and that was caused by the resin as the piece heated up from the sanding. The paint sanded right off without sticking to the disc. I've also had good luck sanding poly, shellac and varnish. The Rhynogrip seems to work very well on the materials I sand most. While I still think Festool's specialty abrasives are a step ahead for their given applications; the Rhynogrip is better all purpose sandpaper than other brands I've tried. Also, being reasonably price, it's a good value. If you're looking for more choices of sandpaper for your Festool sander Rhynogrip is worth checking out.

Abranet is a mesh or screen abrasive. The idea behind the mesh type abrasive is for all the holes to help improve dust collection. I used it with my 5" Festool RO sander; since the dust collection with this sanders is excellent with the all other sand paper I've used I didn't any improvement using the Abranet. These discs being mesh meant Festool's unique nine hole pattern was a nonissue. Mirka also offers "Pad Protectors" to save wear and tear on the sander's pad. The Pad Protectors have numerous holes to fit most common hole patterns. (The 6" pad protector fits my Festool sander fine but the 5" needed a center hole cut into it.) Abranet has a fabric backing with hook and loop fastening, and the grit is clearly printed on the back of each disc. Available grits: 80-1000.

I've not gotten a chance to really put the Abranet through its paces yet. However, my first impressions are quite good. The abrasive cuts well and the mesh has held together on the discs I've used so far. I read a reviewer folding the Abranet to use while hand sanding. I tried it with a disc, folding a disc I able to get into some tight contours. The disc held up great where regular sandpaper the abrasive would crumble off the backing. I try to report back once I have more extensive experience with the Abranet discs.

In the interests of full disclosure, the Rhynogrip and Abranet simples shown here were supplied by 2Sand.com for review purposes.