Official Luthiers Forum!

Not the soft AbraLON, but the Abranet Soft. Do any of you use this up to P2500 on your finish? Do you use it wet or dry?

I am a recent Abranet convert. Haven't used it a lot, but am happy enough with the results that & bought a whole bunch! The best feature is that it doesn't clog nearly as quickly as paper backed abrasives. (a real issue with nitro)
I used the foam backed discs on one instrument & found the finish ended up just a bit wavey. I recommend trying the standard discs with no foam backing. I bought a new Abranet disc for my ROS. Seems like a good investment, so far. It has many small holes to help the vacuum carry the dust away.
For finish work, I have been using water to lubricate.
Abranet seem to wear out a little quicker than wet/dry paper, but it does the job more quickly with far less frustration since it doesn't clog up in the same way.

Daniel, there's the regular Abranet that goes up to P1000, but there's another product called Abranet Soft that goes up to P2500.

Are you referring to Abranet Soft in your reply?

There are quite a few posts regarding Abralon, yet another product from Mirka, and its use in the final stages of finish sanding, but I like the idea of the "net" that allows for vacuuming of the dust - which Abralon does not have.

Darren,
You may want to check some of the Autobody Forums for the Abranet Soft. It's farily new. The recommended way to use it is wet sanding. Other than the addition of a thin cusion and the finer grits it's pretty much the same product as the regular Abranet. Having the thin layer of foam acts as a trap for the finish particles during use. I've never wet sanded under vacumn. The regular Abranet up to 1000g applied to a multi-hole backing interface is all I use for ROS. I follow the Abranet with either Abralon or Micromesh for hand wet sanding.

Once you are past the levelling phase, I would think a foam backed abrasive would work great. I may get some to try out, myself!

Bummer, I was hoping to stock one type of sandpaper that could do both wood and finish (dry).

Yes and No. I wouldn't recommend Abralon under P2000 grit. If you don't believe me, I can send you samples.

Tony;
Can you explain the issues you had using Abralon? Or... Send samples?
Thanks!

For me - I think the harder the block, the more level and better looking the finish will be. So I wouldn't touch the lacquer with anything that soft under 2000 grit, and I never sand that fine before hitting the buffer anyways. Happy to send samples and you can try them out and make up your own mind - just PM your address.