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Tim Nott

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Any one know what the Velcro-like stuff on the pad of a ROS is, and where it can be obtained? I have a Bosch GEX125 1AE, which has seen little use, and the stuff is worn so it no longer grips the sandpaper discs which go flying off across the workshop. Short of buying an entire new pad (around £30) I can't find anyway of replacing this. Any ideas?
 
You probably need to buy the new pad. When you do, get a pad saver to go with it. I got mine from rest express I think. Sooner or later you are going to have to but you could glue the saver to it as a last time.

You could possibly glue the pad saver to your current pad. It isn't a solution forever because they do wear out as you have found, particularly with abranet. The saver is about £6 though and just pulls off to replace. Obviously when glued you won't be able to do so.
 
I bought a bosch sander a while back and was surprized to find the velcro only lasted an hour before the sand paper came flying off. I was not impressed by the machine at all. I sent it back and got a replacement which did the same thing. Before that I'd been using a cheap one from B&Q which lasted a couple of year with quite heavy use doing machines.
To fix it I bought a wide roll of velcro and sanded the old one off the sander by glueing some sandpaper to a board. Then I used contact adhesive to attach the new velcro.
I have a big role of velcro if you would like some send your address via pm and I will send you some
 
I just purchased some wide (maybe 50mm) roll of hook off eBay.

I think I worked out that whatever their minimum sale amount was would do two iterations.

It was a fair while back, and I still have the unused half somwhere...
 
You probably need to buy the new pad. When you do, get a pad saver to go with it. I got mine from rest express I think. Sooner or later you are going to have to but you could glue the saver to it as a last time.

You could possibly glue the pad saver to your current pad. It isn't a solution forever because they do wear out as you have found, particularly with abranet. The saver is about £6 though and just pulls off to replace. Obviously when glued you won't be able to do so.
The pad savers seem to get a mixed response on here. I can see the 'softer' surface rounding edges, but on flat surfaces?

Mirka? is this the one you use? How do you find it please?
 
The pad savers seem to get a mixed response on here. I can see the 'softer' surface rounding edges, but on flat surfaces?

Mirka? is this the one you use? How do you find it please?

That is the one I use. Cheaper than I remembered but I knew it was priced as a consumable. My actual pads are cheaper than the Bosch from memory, nearer £20 but I would still use this as a default because £20 is £20. If you are carefully doing edges, you can always remove the saver temporarily.

Performance wise, it is fine. I am conscious of rounding edges with the ROS and this does make it slightly softer and more prone to do so, but I would suggest (no experience with other models) that it is an inherent fault with most ROS and not helped by bad technique. I have a sanding block that I usually do edges with. For flat surfaces, I have never had an issue with or without the pad saver. Perhaps I have an expert technique but I doubt it!

Some of the issue (I have read) is with the hooks from the pad being longer than the loops on abranet, so get scrubbed quickly and it looses it's stick. Not sure if it is correct, but my first pad was used with abranet and that is what happened. With traditional sandpaper discs, it can't really happen so it makes sense. I still use abranet for performance and dust extraction but there are some alternative good abrasives out there eg festool. That is a separate discussion perhaps!
 
That is the one I use. Cheaper than I remembered but I knew it was priced as a consumable. My actual pads are cheaper than the Bosch from memory, nearer £20 but I would still use this as a default because £20 is £20. If you are carefully doing edges, you can always remove the saver temporarily.

So you're using the Mirka padsaver with a Bosch ROS? I'll assume there's a good 'hole' match.

Performance wise, it is fine. I am conscious of rounding edges with the ROS and this does make it slightly softer and more prone to do so, but I would suggest (no experience with other models) that it is an inherent fault with most ROS and not helped by bad technique. I have a sanding block that I usually do edges with. For flat surfaces, I have never had an issue with or without the pad saver. Perhaps I have an expert technique but I doubt it!
... Insert appropriate flattery ;-)
Agreed, if you're keen on keeping sharp edges and know of this issue, not hard to avoid.

Some of the issue (I have read) is with the hooks from the pad being longer than the loops on abranet, so get scrubbed quickly and it looses it's stick. Not sure if it is correct, but my first pad was used with abranet and that is what happened. With traditional sandpaper discs, it can't really happen so it makes sense. I still use abranet for performance and dust extraction but there are some alternative good abrasives out there eg festool. That is a separate discussion perhaps!

:oops: That's a bit subtle... A clear mismatch! Do you mean your first pad saver was used with abranet?

I don't undersand why it 'can't happen' with traditional sandpaper disks? Are you talking about hook and loop size or something else please?
 
So you're using the Mirka padsaver with a Bosch ROS? I'll assume there's a good 'hole' match.


... Insert appropriate flattery ;-)
Agreed, if you're keen on keeping sharp edges and know of this issue, not hard to avoid.



:oops: That's a bit subtle... A clear mismatch! Do you mean your first pad saver was used with abranet?

I don't undersand why it 'can't happen' with traditional sandpaper disks? Are you talking about hook and loop size or something else please?

I am using the mirka padsaver with a metabo. Hole pattern is fine on mine. It has some extra holes in but the 8 or so in the sander.

When I got the sander, I didn't use a padsaver and I did use abranet. As a result over time the pad itself stopped gripping so I had to but a replacement. At the same time as replacing it I bought the padsaver.

Abranet is a mesh. The velcro bits are a bit long and can stick through the mesh and get sanded off, making it shorter and less grippy. On traditional sandpaper discs, it is a solid piece so the velcro cannot stick through.
 
Abranet is a mesh. The velcro bits are a bit long and can stick through the mesh and get sanded off, making it shorter and less grippy. On traditional sandpaper discs, it is a solid piece so the velcro cannot stick through.

Subtle indeedy! Thanks for clarifying. The velcro must be long to poke through the mesh!
I'm trying some Trend mesh - I'll have a look for the same issue.
 
I use the product I linked to earlier with arbanet and have had no issue with hooks poking through.

My ros is a mirka pnumatic device.

Festool have positioned themselves as king in the woodworking field. As a auto refinisher if they would use a festool product and they will look at you blankley and ask "who's festool"

Mirka is king in that field.
 
I don't know what it was then but the pad certainly wore fairly quickly with the abranet on.
 
I can only guess that Mirka have 'matching' hooks and eyes since they produce the two items.
Seems reasonable.


To clarify, I said somthing along the lines of "with the product I linked to" which was a velcro branded tape that I'd replaced the original Mirka backing with.

And subsequently used arbanet without issue.
 
Many thanks for all the replies, and Wallace's kind offer. Think I am sorted now!
 
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