What grit do you use on your large disc sander?

[Terry W]

I've have a Delta combo 6 inch belt / 9 inch disc sander. What is the general opinion on what grit paper to keep on disc for general use?

80 or 120 grit are the two I'm thinking would be best for general use. (For what it's worth, I keep 120 grit paper on the belt.)

Also, mine uses self adhesive sandpaper. Has anyone upgraded to hook and loop? Sure would be easier than stripping the old paper off with a heat gun and having to clean the plate every single time.

[Turner52]

I usually keep 120 on, but do go coarser depending on what I am doing. Would also like to her about hook and loop

[KC]

I've have a Delta combo 6 inch belt / 9 inch disc sander. What is the general opinion on what grit paper to keep on disc for general use?

80 or 120 grit are the two I'm thinking would be best for general use. (For what it's worth, I keep 120 grit paper on the belt.)

Also, mine uses self adhesive sandpaper. Has anyone upgraded to hook and loop? Sure would be easier than stripping the old paper off with a heat gun and having to clean the plate every single time.

I use 80 or 100 on mine, never change it until it's worn out.  I've never considered the disc as something for 'fine' work.

[jcredding]

I use 80 on my 20” disc and 120 on the 12”. The 20” is mostly for sanding segmented rings flat prior to glueing stacked rings.

[fredhargis]

I use 80 or 100 on mine, never change it until it's worn out.  I've never considered the disc as something for 'fine' work.

I have 100 on mine, and have the same opinion of what it's for.

[KyleD]

I use 60 grit on the 12" disk side of my combination sander. Calling it a sander can be a misnomer. In my shop it is mostly for adjusting miters and light material removal like flushing joints or sanding to a line. A fresh disc is a little aggressive but it soon settles down and lasts a good while. I usually load it up with glue or resin before it looses all the shaping power. Make sure you have a crepe rubber stick to keep the disc clean as long as possible.

[Halfathumb]

I too keep 80 grit more as a shaper and finer grits on my ROS or by hand

Jim

[Rob Young]

80 on a disk for me.

I've never considered putting hook and loop on a large disk, I just wonder if it would be rigid enough. I could imagine that it might buckle a bit out in front of the cut near the rim with its high speed.

[iclark]

On the hook and loop, there were a lot of discussions on the Shopsmith forum of the pro and con when it was introduced.

IIRC, the consensus was that the hook and loop was more convenient when changing sandpaper, but the hook and loop itself was compressible. It is like putting a thin layer of stiff foam under the sandpaper. That meant that putting any pressure against the disk would compress the backing and slightly round over the edge being sanded.

So, it depends on what you want the disk to do for you.

[BloomingtonMike]

80 on my 12" disc sander. Adhesive backed. I just clean it when changing it.