How do you use a sanding block with dust extraction?

[James Spillman]

I know the question sounds ridiculous. But when I watched videos of the Mirka and Festool hand sanders with vacuum ports I only saw folks sanding cars and drywall. So I wonder how a woodworker would benefit from one of these sanders. I also wonder which sander is preferred by woodworkers. Thanks.

[Derek Cohen]

I do not plug in the vacuum cleaner if I am breaking an edge. However, if I were doing protracted hand sanding, such as the spindles of a chair, then I would do so.

The 20mm hose for the Mirka sanders is very light and flexible, and the sander does not feel as though there is anything attached to it. The hook-and-loop Abranet screen enables different grits to swap out quickly. The dust extraction removes dust from the screen, and this not only makes the process dust-free, but it provides for a better sanding performance.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Spillman]

Thank you Derek. Do you know if the 20mm hose for Mirka sanders fits the Festool midi dust extractor?

[glenn bradley]

When doing a fair amount of hand sanding I wear a respirator and run the ambient cleanrer (hanging air scrubber). Certainly a hose from your DC lying on the surface nearby could work.

[Derek Cohen]

Thank you Derek. Do you know if the 20mm hose for Mirka sanders fits the Festool midi dust extractor?

James, I have a Festool CT26E, and the Mirka is a perfect fit for this ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Erich Weidner]

I know the question sounds ridiculous. But when I watched videos of the Mirka and Festool hand sanders with vacuum ports I only saw folks sanding cars and drywall. So I wonder how a woodworker would benefit from one of these sanders. I also wonder which sander is preferred by woodworkers. Thanks.

James, the festool dust extractor (Cleantec?) coupled with the Festool random orbital sander is a dream. Worth every penny. Last year I used it to sand I don't know... a few thousand square feet of wood at my job site (pub with lots of faux tudor wood trim, plus the bar, and booth partitions,etc.) I never noticed dust in the air or settling on things except when edge sanding. (Or when I didn't notice the dust extractor bag was full. And it sucked dust up until that bag was a solid almost sand bag of dust).

Highly recommend. Love it. I hate sanding, but you can have this only out of my cold dead hands. Previously I had a hand sander and ROS from porter cable hooked up to a Fein vac. Night and day different dust extraction. (I'm sure it is no fault of the Fein)

Edit. Sorry I see this question was about the hand sander. I've not used it. But if you want a ROS see above.

[Phil Mueller]

I have this from festool.

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does a nice job minimizing dust when hand sanding.

[Thomas Wilson]

A down draft box connected to a dust collector is very effective at collecting dust from pad sanders and even a hand block. I made a small one using panels from Rockler.

[John Erickson]

Mirka abrasives are by far the best I have ever used, no dust floating around and worth every dollar you spend. Go to Mirka Abrasives website into the accessories section look for hose Part# MIN6519411, it will connect to most shop vac. I've using Mirka abrasives for several years, the Arbranet ACE ceramic abrasive are worth the added cost. I use a few Dynabrade air sanders with Mirka 6" backup pads Part# 916G along with 6" interface. Also have the 6" Deros 625 for job site work but prefer the Dynabrade setup in the shop. I have both hand block sanders MVHB35 & MVHB38 and use the Abranet 2.75" roll abrasives on them.

[Jim Matthews]

Wear a mask, use shop size air filtration.

Keep the filter running when you leave to catch smaller particulates still circulating.

If you're like most of us, sanding is less frequent and more focused than once it was.

[Derek Cohen]

When I initially responded to the first post on this thread I was under the assumption that I has replying to an existing thread on the Power forum. Perhaps I should now re-post my original reply for those who do not venture there ...

It has been demonstrated that more dust is created by hand sanding than by the average (not necessarily good) power sander into a vacuum cleaner. The choice is yours whether you wish to take this seriously or not.

It is important to realise that hand sanding creates a significant amount of dust. I'm as guilty as the next for ignoring this - a quick sand with paper over a block. What could it hurt? But the fact is, it creates a dangerous amount of dust.

I've now taken to using Mirka hand sanding blocks with Abranet mesh. The Abranet mesh enables the dust to be picked up more comprehensively. This also makes for cleaner, smoother sanding (less scratches from coarser grits). The sander is connected to a vacuum cleaner (Festool CT26E) ...









Some months ago I began using the sanding pads with the appropriate hose. I was using a Festool 27mm and found this too heavy. Now I use a Mirka 20mm, and it hardly feels attached ...




Regards from Perth

Derek

[Richard Hutchings]

Dang, another thing I think I need. When does it end

[mike stenson]

Dang, another thing I think I need. When does it end

Well, assuming you have a vac.. it's less than the cost of a Veritas cabinet scraper. To be honest, all things considered, it'd be money well spent.

And yea, just anecdotally I can attest that hand sanding puts more junk in the air than using abranet on my ROS.

[Richard Hutchings]

My ROS seems to collect every bit of it with the holes in regular sandpaper. I love it but sometimes I need to sand by hand and this looks like a good option.