Microplane disks

Charlie S and Titan

Charlie S and Titan

Well-known member
Anyone here used the microplane disks that velcro onto an orbital sander? I saw them in the Northern Tool catalog, and they were between $9 and $14 for a package (2 per pkg if you get the same grit, 3 per pkg if you get the grit assortment).

I've used their replacement sureform plane blades and hand rasps and they work great for shaping cork. They are wicked sharp.

I wonder how these disk things would work for boat building and decoy rough shaping tasks. They come in 40, 80 and 120 grit.

Seems like they'd cut well and load up a whole lot less than sandpaper. The blurb in the catalog claims they work 5x faster and last up to 7x longer than sandpaper.

Any reviews?

I may have to see if my local hardware guy can get me a couple.
 
Googled up their site, looks like they also have rotary shapers that might work nicely for decoy body roughing...

http://us.microplane.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=4

linky
 
Charlie,

I don't know that we aren't talking apples and oranges, but I just used velcro attached disks on my palm sander to rough up the paint finish on an aluminum boat I pained with Parker's bay gray. I was astounded that it took only 2 discs to rough up the whole boat for painting. The dust collector on the palm sander made the job less messy. The holes in the sanding disk allowed the dust to collect in the cannister. I am pleased with the result. As a matter of fact, I didn't even take the decals off of the boat - just sanded them up for paint.

Bill
 
Yes. Works great. I use 80 grit and it's extremely effective on maple floured epoxy. Maple flour is very very hard to sand.

I borrowed my friend's professional grade Random orbital sander and he had 120 grit on it (w/velcro thing) and it was amazingly powerful. Scary powerful.

What are you making?

A>
 
Mostly I'm making a tool collection... LOL

It is almost that bad. I have this whole collection of great wood working tools and no time to use them. After graduation (Aug 09) the first thing that gets built is the perrine sneakbox. After that, I owe my wife some furniture.

I have a little (very little) time here and there where I can hack on a decoy. These microplane power tool thingys seem like they'd be great for rough shaping a decoy body with power tools, after cutting the body on the bandsaw. Not as traditional as a rasp, gouge or drawknife, but maybe handy for rapid material removal (I don't own a Foredom for that purpose yet).

I have a couple of the microplane hand tools and they are great. One of the best features is they take bigger chunks than a sander so they don't put as much in the air and all over everything.

For guys doing boat projects, they might reduce the consumables costs? The don't seem as likely to load up as sandpaper, and that alone would save time (swapping disks out).

Charlie
 
Charlie, after I cut the body block out on the bandsaw, I cut more strips off to round it a bit. After that, if it needs any drawknife-ing I do a little....then I take an old Makita 4" sq orbital sander with a hunk-o-24grit and start rounding and smoothing with it. I'll have to order a couple sets of those..but my little Makita isn't hook and loop...hmmmm.
 
I use a 6 " palm held air powered random orbital. I have used a Sioux for 25 years. It is very powerful and fast, but still with lots of control. I am still useing the sticky back discs.

Mark F. Cheney
 
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