Sanding sponge

[meirion658]

Morning all been using the Tamiya sponges in various grades and overall happy with the finish.Only problem I find at £4 a pop they not cheap!!

Anyone know of any alternatives possibly from the car trade ? I was looking at the Wet and Dry sandpaper from Halfords as an alternative ?

[Tim Marlow]

Albion alloys do sanding sponges, have a look at their ranges Meirion.

[Mark1]

Try mirka soft roll on ebay

[BarryW]

Look in SMS as there are plenty of options there. Personally though I would suggest that you get what you pay for and quality is worth having and work out cheaper in the long run. I have the full Infinity set, sponges, sticks, the while lot as there are uses for each type.

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/sanding/page/2/

[Ian M]

Is it the INFINI ones you mean Barry.
I am pleased with the ones from Flex-i-file. Last a long time not to expensive and can be bought separate or in sets. They also have shaped ones.

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/brands/flex-i-file/

[Mark1]

The mirka sponge is 36quid for 200 pads on a 25m roll, widely used in the auto industry ,25m will last you a lifetime.

[Andy T]

Try mirka soft roll on ebay

This.

We use the 500 & 800 at our place and the odd one goes home and lasts ages.

meirion658 , if you want a couple to try and see if they suit you pop me a message and I'll throw a couple in the post.

[Mark1]

This.

We use the 500 & 800 at our place and the odd one goes home and lasts ages.

meirion658 , if you want a couple to try and see if they suit you pop me a message and I'll throw a couple in the post.

Yep i got a few at home too along with a few tubes of stopper ,blades, masking tape ,scotch pads...lol

[BarryW]

Is it the INFINI ones you mean Barry.
I am pleased with the ones from Flex-i-file. Last a long time not to expensive and can be bought separate or in sets. They also have shaped ones.

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/brands/flex-i-file/

Infiny produce a whole range of products and I have the full set

Large square sanding sponges covering a range of grits. These are used cut into small pieces to get into tight areas, often held in tweezers.

Sanding sponge ‘sticks’, again in a variety of grits. These are large and are my ‘go to’ for seams at least after an initial ‘rub’ with a harder sanding stick.

Speaking of ‘hard’ sanding sticks they do two types, in two sizes, the grits are different for each, the smaller go up to 7000 grit while the larger are a courser grit range. These have many uses such as running a larger fine stick over ‘clamshell’ parts to get a better cleaner join or giving seams an initial ‘rub’.

Then they have their ‘elastic’ sanding sheets. These are really just like high quality wet and dry paper. I did not think I would get much use out of these but there are situations I find them handy.

For getting into hard to reach places they do these metal files in various shapes onto which you stick self adhesive sanding paper that come in a variety of grits. Another I find a lot of use for.

Next up are their metal files in three ‘grits’. These I find useful in shaping perhaps a cavity I drilled into a square. I recommend not using these for etch, a specialist etch file from Tamiya cannot be beaten for that.

Then there are their glass files in two sizes and three grits. These are the very best you can get for removing sprue attachment hubs. They almost polish the nub off the part, removing material slowly reducing the risk of over sanding.

All in all I use most of these on every build. All have their place and being high quality, can easily be cleaned off, perhaps under water, for reuse.

I have given up on the previous sanding sticks, skinny sticks and sponges after trying these and getting the full set. It was quite an investment to stock up but they last really well and may well work out cheaper in the long run.

Incidentally, I also have my David electric sander which also has its uses but is much less useful than all the above.