Shopsmith Forums

Maybe this is already a common sight for some of you, but I was surprised to see that familiar logo on a whole section of sanding materials — disks, belts, and flap wheels — at my local Lowe’s yesterday. All were marked ‘Made in USA’, or ‘Assembled in USA, Made in South Korea’. Prices were reasonable, I guess. Seems like such a commodity market would be hard to be competitive in, but I hope the apparent growing partnership with Lowe’s is successful for SS.

Ken

PS - They had a lot of ~1 x 3 in. sanding strips in various grits with little plastic holder/handles. What are these used for?

kenbu wrote:Maybe this is already a common sight for some of you, but I was surprised to see that familiar logo on a whole section of sanding materials — disks, belts, and flap wheels — at my local Lowe’s yesterday. All were marked ‘Made in USA’, or ‘Assembled in USA, Made in South Korea’. Prices were reasonable, I guess. Seems like such a commodity market would be hard to be competitive in, but I hope the apparent growing partnership with Lowe’s is successful for SS.

Ken

PS - They had a lot of ~1 x 3 in. sanding strips in various grits with little plastic holder/handles. What are these used for?

Hand sanding

Our local Rural King farm store now has a display containing Shopsmith abrasives.
I have not really looked to see what all is carried yet, I was just passing through that area in kind of a hurry when I spotted it. I almost got whiplash stopping to be sure that was what it really was.


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my local lowes carries the SS abrasives and gator brand. my experience is the SS ones are FAR Superior to the gator brand.

bill50cal wrote:my local lowes carries the SS abrasives and gator brand. my experience is the SS ones are FAR Superior to the gator brand.

Interesting, as Gator makes both of them, they just licence the Shopsmith name to brand some of their product.

bill50cal wrote:my local lowes carries the SS abrasives and gator brand. my experience is the SS ones are FAR Superior to the gator brand.

I find that interesting since they come from the same factory.

cant explane why but it is just my experience with both. maybe SS has a different spec on how or what they are made with.

I think the SS green ones are different. I really only have others experience to rely on.

Now I am guessing that Gator and SS have an arrangement where Gator makes the premium abrasive products for Shopsmith and part of the agreement is to permit use of the SS trademark by Gator.

Apparently the Gator branded product is not equivalent.

bill50cal wrote:cant explane why but it is just my experience with both. maybe SS has a different spec on how or what they are made with.

I believe that is true. We had a big discussion a few years ago when SS came out with this product line. At the time SS and Gator touted this as a new superior abrasive they called G2 and it was ceramic.

The Gator web site here http://www.gatorfinishing.com/ at the time had a SS page and a link to the SS abrasives web site here.

http://shopsmithabrasives.com/

I bought some of the ROS stick on disks right after they came out. You can clearly see the G2 logo in the picture. It seems that things have changed. There is currently no mention of the G2 abrasives on the Gator web site. The ROS disks I looked at all said Aluminum oxide abrasive like every one else's. The only mention of SS I found was on the "About Us" page.

"During this period, Ali Industries also launched a complete line of professional quality premium abrasive products to the DIY market under the Shopsmith® banner. This complete line of professional quality abrasives are sure to set a new standard in performance and qulaity for the next generation."

The period they are talking about is the 2000's. Ali Industries is the parent company and Gator is the brand name of the sand paper.

On the SS abrasives web site the power sanding products still say G2 on the package but there is no mention of ceramic abrasive. The abrasive is listed as Aluminum oxide. Maybe I am mis-remembering the abrasive as ceramic but I don't think so. They do still say a 4X longevity.

I can say the SS ROS disks I have last an incredibly long time and do not clog. They are much better than any other brand I have used.