Sanding stainless steel

[Bill Kahn]

I sometimes sand stainless steel. I use https://www.onlineindustrialsupply.com/3weblnoho.html because the 3" size work for the small pieces and concave surfaces I work on. I like this line because you can go from very coarse (60 grit) all the way to very fine (2500) at which point I switch over to polishes.

BUT, these sheets wear out on steel very fast. Maybe 10 seconds on my orbital sander ( https://www.griotsgarage.com/product/3+inch+random+orbital.do?from=ac )

So I take it 10 seconds at a time, let sander spin down., change sheets, 10 more seconds.

I would love to find 3" hook and loop sanding sheets that range all the way up to 2500 grit that are better suited for stainless steel.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

-Bill

 

[magicniner]

I use Indasa abrasives on my 6" and 3" DA sanders, I bought the 3" specifically for metal finishing and haven't found the abrasives wear out too quickly. For coarser grades I use a pad mounted on an air drill rather than on the DA as when I was working in a bodyshop coarser grades were used on a sander/polisher, moving to DA at 240 or 320.
It takes a while to learn how to avoid the edge gouging the work with straight rotation as opposed to DA but it speeds the job up massively if you can,
Regards,
Nick