Originally Posted by
John TenEyck
Zirconia lasts longer in my experience on my drum sander, too; however, I'm not sure it's any more economical at $50 vs $80 for the same length roll. There are less changing of strips, though. But if you get slagging on the strips the calculation gets even muddier. I often get slagging when sanding cherry and maple, and when that happens there's no good way to remove the slag to make it usable again in that section. That often necessitates replacing the strip long before it otherwise needed to be.
John
If I catch it quickly I can toss the abrasive in the sink and scrub it with a wire brush. This recovers things pretty well and buys some more use out of a fouled strip. If the slag goes unnoticed and sets for days this method is less successful. When I am working with material prone to loading the paper I keep two strips of the grit I am using handy. When one loads up I give it the sink treatment and continue with the other while it dries. Like tablesaw blades, changing paper only takes a few moments but we seem to resist it 
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