Wet sanding Vs. Dry sanding, pros and cons

[ALLN1WASH]

Hows it going Ag? Im interested in knowing what you all think about this matter. The only experience I have is wet sanding isolated scratches and blemishes. Recently, Ive been reading a lot about these 6" orbitals which appear to make sanding an entire vehicle a breeze. Ive seen that some of these sanders are used in combination with H2o and others are used completely dry. WHAT BENIFITS ARE GAINED OR LOST BY EACH TECHNIQUE, Im not yelling, lol, just very curious...

Right now I have the 3m sander in my cart, but waiting to hear back from a local guy who claims he will sell his for $80. And also I wanted to hear back from some of you all who actually have experience with these type sanders. Also all of these sanders be used wet, or are they designed specifically for that?

[C. Charles Hahn]

Assuming you're talking about pneumatic sanders, yeah pretty much all of them are 100% safe to use wet. Nice part is you don't have an electric shock hazard like you would using a PC or equivalent tool.

[ALLN1WASH]

Yea, it's a pneumatic sander I'm talking about. Which way produces the best finish, wet or dry???

[PorscheGuy997]

Ive seen that some of these sanders are used in combination with water and others are used completely dry. What benefits are gained or lost by each technique?

Dry sanding is actually less aggressive than wet sanding. Also, there is less mess and you can see the results almost instantly.

Some disks work wet or dry. Mirka's Abranet Soft comes to mind. I've used it dry to spot level deeper scratches. Quick and painless.

When doing a large area, I generally go with wet. A backing pad (Meg's E-7200) or California water blade will work to remove the slurry from the paint surface.


Do you know the machine's stroke size? 3/32 is generally regarded as a finish sander, whereas 5/16 can knock out scratches and orange peel with ease. There are a few other sizes, too. It just depends on what you're working on.

[Mike Phillips]

One word of caution, if you're going to dry sand wear some type of device to filter the air so you don't breathe in paint particles.

With wetsanding, the majority of the abraded paint particles are suspended in water, not airborne.

[aerogt01]

Good tip, Mike.

Another option would be to use a vacuum-generating sander from somebody like Dynabrade. Or, connect a sander to a vacuum with a good filter on it.