In their Gift Center, Amazon is selling a variety pack of 50 Diablo SandNet Discs for $20. These discs are made for 5″ random orbital sanders (ROS) and will fit any hole pattern because they are a mesh material that allows air to flow through the entire disk.
The package contains:
- (10) 80-grit coarse discs
- (10) 120-grit medium discs
- (10) 180-grit fine discs
- (10) 220-grit ultra-fine discs
- (10) 400-grit micro-fine discs
- (1) application pad for attaching discs to the sander
These discs need the included adapter pad to work on an ROS. The pad sticks to the hook-and-loop base of the sander and the discs stick to the pad.
You can buy the Diablo 50 disc assortment in-store or order online with free shipping.
Price: $19.88
Discussion
Stuart wrote about Diablo SandNet sanding discs a few years ago. I’ve run through several packages and had mixed results.
These SandNet discs excel when sanding flat boards, the dust collection is good, and the rate of material removal seems better than paper discs of comparable quality. They also don’t gum up as much as paper discs, but they can still clog. When they do clog, you can just remove the disc from the pad and vacuum it out or even rinse it in the sink.
Where I get into trouble is when I sand edges. When sanding edges, you have to be very careful to keep the pad flat against the board, otherwise the edges of the disc will fray and can start ripping. The discs do seem to last longer than paper discs, but they eventually end up looking like the above disc after a while, even if you are careful. I’d say the claims of up to 10X longer life are overstated; these Diablo sanding discs might last somewhere around 2X longer for me compared to traditional sanding discs with paper backing.
The adapter pad doesn’t wear like the discs do. I’ve used the same adapter pad for a few 10-packs of SandNet discs, and it still works as if I just took it out of the box. Given that a 10-pack of SandNet discs usually costs $10 to $15 and only comes with a single grit number, $20 for a 50-pack is a good deal. I missed this deal last year because I was cheap and was waiting for them to discount the assortment even further, but they never did. I won’t make that mistake again.
The nice thing about having an assortment like this is that you get multiple grit sizes from coarse to ultra-fine in one package. It always seems like I am always missing a few grit sizes when I’m sanding, and an assortment like this can help me avoid having to skip a step or stop mid-project to head to the store.