Sandpaper for 5" Festool

[Brent Smith]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone else make sand paper for 5" Festool sanders? Unfortunately the Festool dealers in the States can't sell to us here in Canada and from my latest experience, the only rep from Hafele (the Canadian dealer for Festool) here in Montreal that knew what he was talking about with Festool has left the company. Three calls ( the person who answered the phone wasn't even sure what Festool was!!!) with promises of a call back have left me soured on trying to do any more business with them.

[David DeCristoforo]

I know some people don't like being told to "google" for an answer but there are actually quite a few sources on the 'net if you search for "Festool sandpaper". Actually, one of the main reasons I never bought a Festool sander is because you have to order "special" disks with Festool's proprietary hole pattern so you can't just hop over to the hardware store and pick up some disks when you are in a hurry (which I seem to be most of the time). That and the price plus the fact that you pretty much have to buy the vacuum system too in order to get the thing to suck dust properly. One of these days, I may break down and buy one and then maybe I will discover what I have been missing.....

[Jay Jolliffe]

Klingspor's sells 9 hole discs for Festool. I just looked in the catalog & for 50 pk of say 150 grit there 14.95.....looks to be a little cheaper than the Festool brand which is 19.50 that may be a different backing though.

[Peter Quinn]

Ditto Klingspor, they have a web site with on line ordering, and are real nice to talk to on the phone as well. They have paper for Festool sanders, should be high quality like the rest of there line, though I have not ordered it from them yet personally.

My local hardware store just became a Festool dealer so it has become a short ride for me for paper.

[Joe Scharle]

Klingspor's sells 9 hole discs for Festool. I just looked in the catalog & for 50 pk of say 150 grit there 14.95.....looks to be a little cheaper than the Festool brand which is 19.50 that may be a different backing though.

BTW, my local Klingspor told me that their agreement with Festool only allows catalog sales.

[Scott Rollins]

Bob marinos best tools dot com is a good source. I dont remember the rules for adding a internet address. BTW the Festool paper on my ETS 125 lasts much longer than my norton 3x paper with my PC sander both with vacuum (ridgid monster).

[Jim McFarland]

I've used finer grit (240-->600) Mirka Abranet with an interface pad on the 5" Festool sander and worked well. Not sure if Abranet is available to you but might be worth a shot. I haven't tried the coarser grits. Available in these grits according to Mirka web-site:

P80, P100, P120, P150, P180, P240, P320,
P360, P400, P500, P600, P800, P1000

Edit to add: BTW, I used the Mirka interface pad (IIRC, Festool sells an interface pad, too)

[Brent Smith]

Thanks guys for the info on Klingspor. I'll check with them tomorrow as to shipping to Canada.

Scott, unfortunately Bob can't ship to Canada.

Jim, Lee Valley sells Abranet, so that may be a way to go also.

David, I Googled first but most of what came up were Festool dealers in the US.

Thanks all.

[Jim Becker]

If you can get abrasives that match the outer holes but that don't have the center hole (which is important to the dust collection), you can make a punch to create that center hole.

[Peter Quinn]

Another thought is along the lines Jim mentioned is that PC just announced a ROS with an 8 hole pattern. Don't know if paper is available for that tool yet or if the 8 hole pattern is the same as festool, but if so that might be a good candidate for center punching should you desire.

[Jesse Cloud]

Brent,
Have you tried festtoolownersgroup dot com ? There are a number of Canadian contributors there (who seem to share your view of Hafele). Maybe they have a source...

[Brent Smith]

Thanks Jim and Peter, but I haven't yet found anything that even comes close to matching the hole pattern locally.

Jesse, I've posted over on the FOG site, thanks completely slipped my mind.