Emery Cloth, Sandpaper

[ddickey]

What do you guys use?
Want to get a supply of abrasives.
Where is a good online store to buy these?
I notice Emery cloth comes in fine, medium but not grits, why?

 

[richl]

I'm using 3m pads right now for the lathe and mill. I use very fine sandpaper for sharpening tools, 200-1000grit and above.
Anything coarser and I use that on disks, or flap disks for grinding and material removal...

Hth, ymmv
Rich

 

[kvt]

All depends on what I am trying to do, I have both sand paper and emery cloth. And yes the cold comes in varying grits. I also like the waterproof emery paper for some items where I do wet sanding for finish. Use anything from 60 grid to 1500 use a lot of 320-400 cloth when doing some smoothing on the lathe, use the coarse for shaping a bit, and the real fine gives a nice surface to do final polish on. Where to purchase I look for and watch for sales as much as possible, and purchase roles of the cloth and large packages of the paper, then they last a long time.
Hope this helps.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

there may be many abrasives that could be considered emery cloth.
it is usually cloth backed with abrasive glued to its surface, not to be confused with crocus cloth.
crocus cloth has the abrasive coating the backing, but not bound to the backing in the same manner as emery cloth.
the crocus, iron oxide abrasive, sheds easily in comparison in use
crocus cloth is sold in the fine, medium, coarse grades without reference to grit.
were emery is sold in grit variations

i generally use emery cloth for sanding munged up or rusty shafts.
i use either 150 or 220 grit for my needs
the last rolls i got were at HF.
i was pleased with the performance and cost of the HF emery cloth.
some things are a crap shoot at HF, but the emery cloths are decent products
the wet/dry abrasives are generally my goto gear.
3m and Norton make fantastic products, but you pay a premium for them.
if you do a lot of hard sanding, the more expensive products will perform better and last longer.

 

[benmychree]

I use abrasive cloth in "shop rolls", I prefer Norton products, I think they are worth the premium cost. I keep and use 80, 120,180, and 240 grit rolls in a rack that I made of 1/8 x 2" flat bar bent into a U shape with holes drilled near the ends of the U and a piece of 1/2" pipe that runs through the hollow hubs of the rolls, this is mounted on the wall near the lathe. I also use wet/dry paper for various uses such as rough lapping on a surface plate, and keep various grades of sandpaper for woodwork.

 

[David S]

I do mostly clock repair stuff and keep various grits of wet / dry paper mounted on a granite counter top sample.



David

 

[tweinke]

Now that's an interesting idea!

 

[RJSakowski]

I primarily use silicon carbide wet or dry paper ranging from 60 to 2000 grit. I use it dry, with WD40 or water for a lubricant, depending upon the application.

Last year, I made the pleasant discovery that the blown belts from my portable belt sander can be used with water. An extra bit of life from an otherwise piece of trash.

For fine polishing, I use diamond paste, purchased from McMaster. I use it with water or WD40 for a lubricant.

 

[BGHansen]

I've got a selection of cloth backed emery cloth from Enco (MSC). Have 1", 1 1/2" and 2" rolls in 60 grit down to 240. Also have a roll of 400 grit.

Bruce

 

[Dave Paine]

I do woodwork as well as machining. I always have some sanding in my woodwork projects, especially wood turning projects.

I have sheets of abrasive from 60 grit to 2400 grit. I have some as normal sandpaper and the finer ones also in wet-dry paper. I use the wet-dry for sharpening hand bench plane blades.

I like the Klingspor abrasives. There are many other good brands. Klingspor has a good site and a couple of stores, one in North Carolina.

You can get a lot of different abrasives in many grits with paper, cloth, hook and loop backing etc.

http://www.woodworkingshop.com/

I have some cloth backed abrasives where were sold as wood turning abrasives. I also use these on metal. Work well.