Micromesh care?

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Scooley01

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On my last supply order, I ordered some Micro Mesh pads to help me get a better shine on my acrylics and I'm going to start experimenting with CA finishing.

Given the price, I'm assuming that these last a lot longer than traditional sandpaper? How do you care for the pads and unload material out of them and whatnot? And when is it time to just replace them?
 
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Some use them dry and wash them as needed, I am told. I keep mine in water and never run a dry one against a blank. While wet, the slury just come comes off in the water. Mine is fairly new, 2 - 3 months, but I have read of others using them for years without replacement. Hope this helps.
Charles
 
I have two sets that I have used for about 4 years now. One set is kept dry, I use these on oily woods like cocobolo or desert iron wood. These I blow clean with compressed air after every pen. The other set is kept in a closed tupperware container with a couple drops of dish soap and enough water to keep them covered. This is used on acrylics and Ca finishes. I use the MM sheets not the pads but don't think there would be any difference. I have to change the water after a dozen or so pens. The dry set needs to be cleaned on occasion when the compressed air no longer does the job. I use a vegetable brush in warm soapy water.
 
I have two sets of the 3 x 6 sheets, one of which is six years old and still in use. The micromesh site recommends only wet sanding since the product will wear out much quicker due to heat with dry sanding. I use mineral spirits as the medium when using micromesh. Another thought is that only the first few grits of micromesh should be considered "sanding" and the rest are "polishing" grits since they are so fine.
 
I have a set of MM pads that have finished almost 200 pens. I sand to 400 then mm dry. I wipe them off on my denim apron. Every so often, I wash them. They are still going strong, but the number one pad is looking pretty ratty now. It gets the heaviest use, being the coarsest.
 
I have 4 little containers (empty cottage cheese or sour cream plastic tubs) that I use when I MicroMesh. 3 contain clean water and 1 is empty. I place the MM pads in one of the tubs with water so they are wet. I keep the pads stacked in the order I'm going to use them. I then use the first one to "sand" the acrylic or CA surface, making sure I bring a liberal amount of water with it when I pick it up to use. For the coarser grits, you will form a slurry of the abraded particles mixed with the water as you sand (not so much when you get to the finer grits). When I'm done with the first grit, I rinse the pad off in the next tub of water and then give it a final rinse in the third tub of water before placing in the empty tub with no water. I then repeat this procedure with the next grit and so on progressing through the grits. I find this dual rinse technique adequately cleans the pads so that they will be ready for my next pen. For the coarser grits, I may have to rub the surface of the pad briefly with my thumb as I rinse it to get it completely clean. I've done about 20 pens so far and the pads show no wear yet.

I use paper towels to quickly wipe the blank clean of the slurry after the first several grits. I don't find it necessary to wipe it again after I get past 3200 grit. For CA finish, I never use the 1500 grit as I find it too coarse and it removes too much of the CA. The 1800 is adequate to remove the small ridges left in the CA from the paper towel pads I use to apply it. These ridges are only visible when I use my 40X hand lens to inspect the surface. I highly recommend using magnification because this inspection tells me whether I've adequate sanded the finish with the 1800 grit. All the "micro-ridges" go away and I'm only left with the tiny scratch marks from the abrasive.
 
I do not use the wet MM on unfinished wood blanks. That would cause the grain to raise and create more problems. For wood sanding, I use either 3M or Norton wet or dry paper dry. I cut it into narrow strips about 1 inch wide cut off a third of a full sheet. I usually start with P240 and work up through P1000 grits on bare wood, clean the wood, then apply the finish of choice. Then I set it aside to cure for a day before using the MM and polishing compound. This is what seems to work for me. It most likely won't work for anyone else. Oh, I almost forgot, when applying the CA finish, you must be wearing yellow socks, use Taco Bell napkins, sing the national anthem while thinking a vodo diddy and stand on your left foot with the right foot swinging freely. There are other methods but they all involve magic of some sort.:wink::biggrin::smile::rolleyes:
Charles
I did forget to mention one important thing, cover the ways of your lathe any time you are wet sanding on the lathe. Otherwise the ways get wet and rust. Do not let that happen.
Charles
 
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