Which Flap Disc Brand Wins?
This head-to-head test of 6 flap disc options has the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Makita
Price shown in test: a little more than $4.59 each, sold in a pack of five
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
Weight
- 1Warrior71 grams
lightest of all 6
- 2Makita89 grams
- 3Walter90 grams
- 4Diablo103 grams2nd
- 5DeWalt79 grams2nd
- 6Norton122 grams
heaviest of all 6
Grit
- 1Warrior36 grit
(all other brands tested at 40 grit)
- 2Makita40 grit
- 3Walter40 grit
- 4Diablo40 grit
- 5DeWalt40 grit
- 6Norton40 grit
Sandpaper area
- 1Warrior42.3 square inches
least of all 6
- 2Makita48.1 square inches
- 3Walter53.9 square inches
- 4Diablo65.6 square inches
most of any brand tested
- 5DeWalt
not explicitly stated (narrator only says it contains about 10 percent more material than Warrior's 42.3 sq in, which is not verbatim enough to convert to a figure; left null)
- 6Norton
second most of any brand tested, only beaten by Diablo (no specific square-inch figure stated)
Test 1 metal removed (5 lb weight, single short pass)
- 1Warrior8 grams
(1,008g to 1,000g)
- 2Makita21 grams
(1,024g to 1,003g), narrator notes this is more than twice the Warrior's test 1 removal but came with more wheel wear
- 3Walter10 grams
(1,005g to 995g)
- 4Diablo14 grams
(1,007g to 993g)
- 5DeWalt6 grams
derived: transcript gives the test 1 starting weight as 1,041g but never states the test 1 ending weight; test 2 for this brand explicitly starts at 1,035g (a passage that also mangles the brand as 'do i'll'/'dowhat' but self-identifies mid-sentence as 'the DeWalt'), and every other brand's test 2 starting weight exactly equals its own test 1 ending weight, so the test 1 loss is derived as 1,041g minus 1,035g = 6 grams; flagged as a cross-referenced derivation, not a directly stated figure
- 6Norton9 grams
(1,013g to 1,004g)
Test 2 metal removed (10 lb weight, doubled run time)
- 1Warrior4 grams
(1,000g to 996g)
- 2Makita7 grams
(1,003g to 996g)
- 3Walter4 grams
starting weight 995g (matches test 1 end weight); transcript states 'it removed four grams on the first test' but this phrase directly follows the 995g test-2 starting weight and contradicts the already-established test 1 figure of 10 grams, so it is read as describing test 2's result with a narration slip on 'first test' rather than a second, different test 1 number
- 4Diablo9 grams
(993g to 984g); transcript mangles the brand name to 'job will' in this passage, resolved to Diablo because the stated starting weight (993g) matches Diablo's own test 1 ending weight exactly, and no other brand's test 1 ending weight matches
- 5DeWalt6 grams
(1,035g to 1,029g)
- 6Norton6 grams
(1,004g to 998g)
Total metal removed
- 1Warrior12 grams
- 2Makita28 grams
most of any brand tested
- 3Walter14 grams
- 4Diablo23 grams
second most of any brand tested
- 5DeWalt12 grams
derived total based on the test 1 cross-reference above
- 6Norton15 grams
How it was tested
- test 1: 5 lb weight on a pivoting-arm grinder, single short (roughly 1 minute) pass on 3/16in rusty steel, metal weighed before/after to measure material removed
- test 2: same steel piece flipped over, run for twice as long with twice the weight (10 lb) to test heat/pressure endurance, metal weighed before/after
- physical wear/wheel condition comparison (new vs. used disc) after both tests
- flap disc weight (grams) and total sandpaper surface area (square inches) comparison
Brand head-to-head scoreboards featuring this test
Data notes and caveats
No single winner is declared; the closing summary makes a case for three different brands depending on priority: Makita for best value/most material removed (but with the most wheel wear), Diablo for best overall balance of removal and low wear, and Walter plus Norton as top contenders for low wear and trimmable design. Narrator explicitly dislikes DeWalt (overpriced for the brand, twice the cost of Makita for similar material) and Warrior (poor design, overpriced even at its low sticker price) as brands to avoid. Two metal-removal figures (DeWalt test 1, Walter test 2) were not directly stated as clean before/after pairs in the transcript and were reconstructed via weight continuity between test 1's ending weight and test 2's stated starting weight for the same brand, a method that resolved cleanly and is noted per-product; this is why confidence is medium rather than high despite otherwise clean, brand-consistent data (all 6 brands matched the description's Products Tested list with no unresolved mangled names).
