By Bill Neddow

We are living in an era of great technological advancements that have opened new frontiers to wood turners.

Nowhere is this more evident than in sanding.

One example is new kind of sandpaper made with ceramic grit.

• It last four to six times longer than other good sandpapers.  This means that, although it is initially expensive, it lasts so long it actually reduces the costs to that of the cheapest paper out there.

• It allows one to use new techniques to reduce the amount of time sanding, while getting gallery-quality results.

Just what is this new ceramic grit?  It is definitely not your Grannie’s ground up tea pot.   It is sometimes described as ceramic aluminum.  It is a micro-crystalline grain, which means that each grain is made up of many crystals so fine they can only be seen under a microscope. By comparison, aluminum oxide is mono-crystalline -- or is one big chunk.  It fractures, which is what keeps sandpaper sharp, but it only has one new edge as opposed to the ceramic gain which produces dozens of new edges.

The companies are not very forthcoming about how they manufacture it.  There are terms like “seeded gel” out there to describe one technique.   There is even a technique of spraying the ceramic on aluminum oxide disks to give them longer life.

The ceramic grits are more aggressive than aluminum oxide and work best in the coarser grits and when used with light to moderate pressure.  In fact, the lighter the pressure, the longer the ceramic disk will last.

We can take advantage of these properties when we use it to sand wood.  To do this, we need to modify our sanding protocol.

It can be summed up in two words -- lighter, faster.

Basically, we need to lighten up on the pressure we put on the sanding pad.  We all use too much pressure on our sanding grits, even for aluminum oxide.

Easing up reduces heat buildup and the potential for cracks in the wood.

It also has other advantages.  Pushing down hard on the sanding disk means you are digging little “grand canyons", with your 80-grit.  Don’t try to push the grit down to the maximum depth.  Even with regular aluminum oxide, you get better results if you are not digging grand canyons.  You just have to sand them out with the finer grits. 

With the ceramic disks, you get added advantage. You can increase the speed of your sander and lathe.  The ceramic is tougher than aluminum oxide and both the backing and glues are extra durable.  It will withstand far more speed than aluminum oxide --  and I believe -- even benefit from it.  The speed helps the microcrystalline structures to fracture, providing sharp new edges more efficiently than aluminum oxide.  So, just gently kiss the wood with the sanding pad.  With the additional speed and aggressiveness of the ceramic, you will get the job done faster and better.

I can sand out an 24” diameter bowl, through all the grits, in about 20 minutes, as opposed to almost two hours using regular speed.  To do this, my sander is running at 6000-7000rpm.  Lathe speed is not as important. This technique will work at any lathe speed – but the faster the lathe turns, the more you cut the time required to sand the piece out.  Just be reasonable.  Turning a 20 inch bowl is not the same as turning a pen.

The ceramic sandpapers have been available to industry for a few years, but they are only now becoming available in disk sizes used by wood turners.  Some of us have been cutting up bigger industrial disks for a number of years.  But this sandpaper was very difficult for the ordinary hobbyist to purchase. 

One of the first on the market was  3M Cubitron.  It is still one of the best. But, it only comes with a PSA (pressure sensitive) backing.  If you want to take it off a pad and store it for future use, you get dust in the sticky back and it will not stick on your pad properly again. There go your cost savings.   If you want to purchase a sanding pad for each grit you use, it will work fine.   There is a conversion sheet available, which will stick on the back of your sanding disk (sticky on one side) and then will fasten to your Velcro pad (Velcro on the other side)_.  My problem with this set-up, is that I kept throwing the conversion sheet away with the sandpaper.    This paper is available from a number of sources now, including The Sanding Glove (www.thesandingglove.com), Craft  Supplies USA (http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com) and Packard Woodworks (/www.packardwoodworks.com) and costs about 62 cents for a 3 inch disk.  It is available in 2, 3, 3.5 and 5-inch disks.

Norton is another manufacturer.  It produces Dry Ice, a ceramic disk with a Velcro backing – perfect for woodturners.  The backing is soft and tough, -- in fact, almost indestructible.   The Velcro has lots of grip and does not fly off.   This is my personal favorite.  I started using it a number of years ago and cut down big disks to get the 3-inch disks I use.  Now, it is available from The Sanding Glove. In 2, 3, 3.5 and 5-inch disks   The grits range from 80 to 400 grit and costs 54 cents for a three inch disk.   

There is another ceramic/Velcro available --manufactured in Germany. I have not been able to find out the name of the manufacturer, but it is available in 2 3/8” and 3 3/8” sizes from Vinces WoodNWonders (www.vinceswoodnwonders.com).   The disks come in 80 to 220 grits. .  A 3 3/8” disk costs 70 cents.  These disks are made oversize so the edges will not dig in, which works, up to a point.  However, if you put bead on your bowls, the paper will quickly damage or obliterate the bead.  The backing is also a little stiff for my liking.  Vince calls it a “four wheel drive” kind of disk.  Vince will shortly have another paper available from the same manufacturer. It will have a film backing, so will be more flexible than the present sandpaper.  The new paper will be available in 40 to 2500 grit.  It is ceramic in the lower grits, where the ceramic shines, and gradually changes over to aluminum oxide at the higher grits, where there is little advantage to having ceramic.  Prices and sizes are  not yet available yet.   

Many other companies also produce ceramic sandpaper, but I have not found any others making Velcro-backed disks.

There is one other paper on the market that I would put in the same category as the ceramic disks.  It is Astra Dot, manufactured in Japan.  It has been on the market for a number of years and I have searched many times to find out what the grit is  – without success.   It stands up just as well as the ceramic disks, even at the most punishing conditions, with the sander running at 6000-8000 rpm and the lathe turning at over 500 rpm.   It has a nice flexible backing and I have never had the Velcro fail even though I have been using it regularly for more than eight years. It is also very hard to clog – so much so that you can use it for sanding green wood.  It is available in grits from  80 to 1000.   A 3-inch disk costs 57 cents – or, you can buy a roll 6 inches wide and 39 inches long and cut your own disks.  This brings the price of a disk down to 35 cent.  In North America is it available only from WoodChucker’s Suppies in Toronto, Canada (www.woodchuckers.com).

There are quite a number of really good aluminum oxide disks out there.   One of the best is a Premium Green sandpaper .  It is Aluminum Oxide, sprayed with a ceramic coating to make it very long lasting.   It is available from Craft Supplies USA (www.woodturnerscatalog.com) Packard Woodworks (www.packardwoodworks.com) and costs about 36 cents per 3-inch disk.  It is available in 80 through to 600 grit.  Sizes are 2 and 3inch and in a slightly larger size (2 ½ and 3 ½ inch) with a wave pattern along the edge. 

Another is a Uneeda product. a sandpaper paper, named UAOFR. It is available in 80 to 400 grit and has an added advantage of having a film back, making it great for wet sanding.  It also makes the backing quite flexible.  The 80 grit is the sharpest  disk I have ever seen anywhere.  It is available at 30 cents for a 3- inch disk from Belgreen Wood (belgreenwood.com).  It is also available in 2 inch disks .

Yet another good one is Norton A275.  It is a heat-treated aluminum oxide.  It is available in 80 to 1500 grit and costs 30 cents.  This comes from The Sanding Glove (www.thesandingglove.com)

These are my favorites in this category – but there are many other good papers out there. 

For the less expensive papers, I prefer one of the following:

The first is Gold Line Premium from VincesWoodNWonders. (www.vinceswoodnwonders.com).  This is a good German manufactured paper and is available in 60 to 800 grit. And is available for 16 cents per three-inch disk. 

The second is from Industrial Abrasives  (www.industrialabrasives.com/1-yard-x-1-yard-hook-loop-sheet-01713-p-338.html).   I am giving the whole address here to the specific page of sheet stock, as it is hard to find on the site.  The paper is available in 36” x 36” sheets and from 60 to 600 grit.   If you cut it yourself, you get 3 inch disks for 11 cents a disk.

These are my recommendations, based on 10 years of production turning during which I took a keen interest in finding good sandpaper.  I still have a mound of boxes piled 5 feet high in the corner of my shop, mainly of the stuff I did not like.  I hope this helps you avoid getting into this situation!

Just remember, the sandpaper business is very competitive.  You get what you pay for.  Those extra cents you pay for the more expensive papers translate into longer lasting grit, better glues, backings and velcro and a more consistent grit pattern -– which cuts down the potential for those frustrating scratches that suddenly appear at times.

I know of only one shortcut that actually saves money – cutting your own disks.

And -- that takes time.