Sanding Aluminum

[Andrew Duncan]

Not exactly woodworking, but I hope someone will be able to give advice.

I need to sand some aluminum housings on the water jets on my boat to remove old flaky paint and oxidation prior to painting. Is there an advantage to using emery cloth for this as opposed to sandpaper? Is emery cloth an abrasive whose time has passed?

[William Falberg]

Emery Cloth is far harder grit than you'll need to sand AL. Emory is for tool steel. It sounds like you have a job for that black abrasive sponge-looking stuff that comes in pads, discs, and cylinders. Even if you have to hand-sand your application, you're probably still better off using the abrasive pads. I just about stopped using sanding grits to clean, de-burr, or trim AL because the black sponge stuff is so much more aggressive and faster. Even Scotch Brite kitchen pads work better than sandpaper on AL. Just MHO.