Is it PSA or Hook & Loop Disks ?

Are you pondering whether to use PSA disks or not? Resident expert at 2sand.com gives his clarification to the inquiries from customers, revolving around the age-old debate of hook and loop or adhesive.

Whether to use PSA sanding disks or Hook and Loop disks or both in a wood shop is the core discussion of this article. Though many answers and suggestions have been given by the industry experts, there is hardly a “one size fits all” answer for all sanding projects. And for this same reason, all the good sanding belt providers stock and offer wide range of products for both types of disks for their customers.

Let’s have a look at Hook and Loop disks.

The great advantage of Hook and Loop disks is that they are re-usable. This allows woodworkers to continue working down through the grits on a small project without hurling away barely used disks. For this reason alone, Hook and Loop disks are no doubt one of the most sought after disks by workers at custom shops, home woodworkers, and installers on jobsites.

PSA Disks

In terms of PSA disks, they usually have a cheaper price tag. They can be set up on a hard pad on the sander to be very flat. They seem to be an ideal choice for shops that deal in large production outputs. This is because such shops often have a number of sanders available and they can assign a sander for each grit of sanding needed for the project. Now they don't have to change disk on a sander to different grit instead they simple switch to a different sander. This way they can use each disks till they are completely worn out thereby getting maximum value out of their PSA disks!

On a related point, we often get asked "Does PSA to H&L adapter come with any vacuum holes? If yes, what patterns are available in the market?"

Yes, adapter pads are available in market which enable you to use Hook and Loop sanding disks on your PSA sander. And you can find them with most reputable and well stocked sandpaper suppliers like 2sand.com. But these adapter pads don’t come with dust collection holes – as there are so many sanders in the market, it would be an inventory nightmare to stock for all varieties of hole patterns! But you can fit them yourself by simply punching holes in the pads to match your sander.

And finally, we have specific sanders which work best for these type of disks – pneumatically powered sanders are more likely to be used with PSA pads and electric powered sanders with built in dust collection can be used for both PSA and Hook & Loop disks.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that customers use both PSA and Hook and Loop disks for their woodworking projects. There are sanders which fit both types of disks. And you can easily buy these disks at most online sandpaper stores. You can also buy adapter pads so that you can use Hook & Loop disks on PSA sander. So now all you have to decide is the type and size of project so that you can decide which combo to use.

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