problem with hook and loop sanding attachment for multi-tool

I have a Makita XMT03Z multi-tool, and the Makita hook and loop sanding attachment. After a days use sanding corners in a set of new cabinets, the sanding attachment is trash, the hook and loop has worn off the corners of the attachment. I think the cause could have been a couple of things: speed setting was 5 (max), and the Makita sandpaper separated from the nylon backing very quickly. I looked for product/usage information on multi tool sanding attachments and could not find any info about speed settings, so maybe some of you have run into a similar problem and can tell me how to solve it. I am thinking of buying a Fein sanding attachment and some Fein sandpaper to see if I get better results, along with setting the speed down to 3. Or should I just regard these sanding attachments as consumables and thats the way it is?

-Dave

I have one of the old Fein tools that originally used stick-on pads. Just for the heck of it I tried the hook and loop backer and sanding pads from Harbor Freight and they work just fine. My tool is the old style that mounts attachments with a bolt and washer but the modern accessories with the star pattern for quick connect models work just fine (Fein?).

I have a Fein and haven't had much luck with the hook and loop pad myself. Scottl may have the better answer and my try myself.

I just detest hook & loop for corners and details. When I was making (foundry) patterns, I made my own attachments with bonded rubber faces that take stick-on sandpaper. Mostly I just cut the shapes I use out of 6" Norton or Mirka Bulldog discs.

Stick-on is not a perfect cure-all, the glue gets hot, melts, and slides. Best if the sandpaper wraps the sides a little. But I find it more effective and cheaper than the stupid H & L in pointy shapes.

Perhaps oddly, you can find stick-on sandpaper in the typical "wankel rotor" triangular shape & size. But no one I've ever found makes or sells a stock tool attachment to mount it.

I've got 2 Feins, and someone later gave me a Porter Cable with the set of slip-in/friction mount shoes for moulding shapes. Surprised me, but there are things the PC works better for than the Feins.

smt

I have one of the cheap clones and it suffers from the same issue with the hook and loop, but the backing pads are cheap enough to count as expendable. I would also prefer stick on paper, so I might try removing the h and l from a worn out backer and use it with the 2.5" psa paper on a roll.

I kinda roll my own, check on the bay and you can buy hook velcro self ahesive in large strips, take a old saw blade, grind the teeth off and put the hook vecro so it overlaps right around the end, then cut some strips out of some da discs or similar and just wrap around it, they work great for getting into realy nasty spots. You stil have to keep the speed down or yeah the heat will melt the velcro, in which case just replace it.

They are expendable, but you can help them last longer by using just enough pressure to get the job done. Bearing down on it does not help. Let the machine do the work and just guide it along.

When you look at a pad and see the three corners worn down to the cloth backing, it should be obvious that you just spent a few minutes working with minute areas of the sand paper. Almost no surface area is being ground down into the work, so sure it wears out fast. If the backing piece is burning up, you stopped way too late.

As is the Fein tool, the sanding pads are specialist tools for those times nothing else works as well. Change pads often and get the work done with sharp grit and not try to sand the area with paper with the grit worn off.

After peeling a piece of paper off a new backing pad and it left the loops behind, I decided it was time to experiment. I sliced the hook layer off a worn out backing pad and stuck on some PSA paper, as long as the backer is clean the paper will stay in place much better than the hook and loop. Henrya is correct that the hook and loop backer will last a long time if you use minimal pressure, but the paper will need replacing after a rather short time if you want it cut effectively.

stephen thomas said:

I just detest hook & loop for corners and details. When I was making (foundry) patterns, I made my own attachments with bonded rubber faces that take stick-on sandpaper. Mostly I just cut the shapes I use out of 6" Norton or Mirka Bulldog discs.

Stick-on is not a perfect cure-all, the glue gets hot, melts, and slides. Best if the sandpaper wraps the sides a little. But I find it more effective and cheaper than the stupid H & L in pointy shapes.

Perhaps oddly, you can find stick-on sandpaper in the typical "wankel rotor" triangular shape & size. But no one I've ever found makes or sells a stock tool attachment to mount it.

I've got 2 Feins, and someone later gave me a Porter Cable with the set of slip-in/friction mount shoes for moulding shapes. Surprised me, but there are things the PC works better for than the Feins.

smt

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The Wankel-rotor shaped pads are probably for an old-school corded Ryobi sander. (Blue and black period.) Non-variable speed, and non-interchangeable tool. Just a sander, probably to avoid Fein patents at the time, which was 20+ years ago? They work, but will turn your hands numb in 15 minutes unless you use gel gloves. They're not great sanders, but the stick-on pads are OK.

Using sharp sandpaper keeps the heat down. (Use the green/purple stuff if you can find it.) And, use a sandpaper cleaning stick so that you're actually making sawdust, instead of just heating up glues and binders. Like any cutting tool, unless there's chips/swarf/dust, you're not cutting. (I know that's not news to you.)

I think there's a Fein tool that comes close to the Wankel shape -- or maybe it's one from (gasp) Harbor Freight.

I've got one of those Porter Cable guys too. Still trying to find the love for it... Variable speed Fein has been my go-to tool for over a decade.