Thread: sandpaper backing vs. polishing

Originally Posted by bradleyheathhay

When sanding resin in an epoxy resin table up to 3000+ grit with a DA/RO sander, would adhesive-backed sandpaper give a more flat/accurate polish vs. hook and loop paper due to the potential for unevenness in the velcro system?

I doubt that you would be able to tell the difference.

However, be really careful because if you generate any heat with the ROS then the epoxy may go cloudy.

At those fine grits I always hand sand.

Haven't had much to do with sanding epoxy, but plenty grinding and finishing welds in metal. Generally used hook and loop on the backers and paper, but generally a the hook material would start to soften after a serious days work finishing and then it became much harder to produce consistent work because the the abrasive surface was uneven no matter how frequently you changed abrasives. We used to keep about 8-10 backers for each machine used for finishing and buy the self adhesive hook material by the roll and have a Friday afternoon each week devoted to stripping the old hook material of the backers, flattening the surface, and cutting, applying and trimming new hook material for the coming week.

The hook material definitely does deform with continuous work, though as suggested above, you would not want to be getting anywhere near the heat in the epoxy that can be created with metal polishing. However the hook density would be akin to something like 60-80 grit paper, so beyond 600 grit there would be a lot of not directly supported grains in contact with the surface.

Personally, I think I would opt for hand sanding.

Depending on how big the table is,
I would be following the Automotive guys, and start using Wet and Dry ,Wet if it won’t cause any problems.

Cheers Matt.

Right on. Thanks for the help guys.