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Seems like a fine idea that was poorly executed. I saw these and thought they would be worth a try. Unfortunately, the velcro lasts just about long enough for you to try the disks, then begins to fail. I would be willing to try them again if they improved either the quality or amount of velcro used. Within minutes on each of the three disks I tried, the velcro began to fail and couldn't hold the disk in place, making the disk completely unusable for anything but hand sanding.
I asked a sales associate if they were any good. I used a tiny chisel to get the little fragments of the Microplane disc (that were supposed to last 36 times longer than a normal sanding disc) out of the wood. At higher sander speeds, the disc can fly across the shop. I thought they seemed like they were worth a try as I have had much success with Microplane products both in my woodshop and kitchen.So now I go to use them.
I will definitely keep using Microplanes, just not in conjunction with my random-orbit. This means that the Microplane discs are rather prone to falling off when you lift the sander off the workpiece. The disc worked about as well as 80 grit but accomplished the work in half the time. It looked like bad tearout from a dull and badly tuned plane. It was able to clean up the tearout rather nicely until the disc falling off the sander for the fourteenth time started getting on my nerves. This seemed like a good idea when I saw it.
The first problem I found was that the gradual warp of the stainless steel discs is just slightly stronger than the holding power of the velcro backing. If the backs of these things were completely covered in velcro rather than small pads, this would probably be a non-issue.I decided to sand some pine 2x10 stock. But upon closer inspection of the board, I noticed that several of the stainless steel teeth from the Microplane were embedded in it.So I gave up. I'll stick with a Surform rasp if I need this effect.Then I moved on to the medium. He said he liked them and reiterated that you should only sand bare wood. The coarse disc tore the hell out of the wood.
The discs, I've found, are useful for hand sanding but I'll certainly never buy another set. Severe wood removal with no control.
It isn't. I recently restored a Boos butcher block -- 4 cubic feet of hard maple -- that had been left in a garage for more than a year. The full velcro made the disc harder to remove from the tool, but it had the significant advantage of preventing dust from clogging the velcro surface on the sander; the strips make things easier, until you find that you have to scrape sawdust from the hooks and loops. Think about it this way: an ordinary random orbit sander (like my Makita BO5010 2 Amp Palm Grip Random Orbit Sander with Cloth Dust Bag) with sand paper is a finish sander, the tool you'd use after a belt sander. But second and more important, the newer discs have many more (smaller) cutting holes, making them much better tools.
But there have been two versions (that I know about) of the fine and medium discs. And when I was done, I could still use the same disc on a different project.But when restoring the butcher block's legs, the Microplane was only useful to remove the top layer of grime (without clogging, I might add). It's being marketed in three different "grits:" fine, medium, and coarse. Microplane made a mistake marketing this product as sandpaper. Mount a Microplane disc on that same tool, and it becomes a "finish planer," one you'd use after a planer (like the Bosch 3365 5amp Planer).Here's an example of when I use mine. Rather than blow through a small pile of sanding belts or a large pile of sanding discs, I took an 1/8 inch off each surface with my Bosch 3365, and then cleaned everything up with a single Microplane (medium grit) disc on my Makita sander. The first difference is that the older versions had full velcro backing, while the current ones have a half-dozen velcro strips. In short, the Microplane discs are useful once you've figured out when to use them.One note about the different versions of this product floating around.
It doesn't behave like sandpaper nor does it yield the same results as sandpaper, despite the fact that it's used on a sander.Rather, Microplane discs transform a random orbit sander into a different type of tool. I got a glass-smooth, *flat* surface, rather than the scratched, uneven surface I would've gotten with a belt sander, and in a fraction of the time. Unfortunately, the manufacturer hasn't come out with a new-and-improved version of the coarse grit disc, so I suggest avoiding it until they do.So I recommend the newer version wholeheartedly (specifically the medium grit), but they lose a rating star for (1) the aforementioned velcro mess, (2) the misleading marketing, and (3) the fact that if you accidentally drop your sander with a Microplane disc installed, the disc is ruined. I needed real sandpaper to achieve an acceptable finish on the legs.
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