Is 7000 grit sandpaper really 7000 grit? NileRed Extra borrows a microscope to check
An atomic force microscope on loan from icspi, which reads a surface by touching it, went from cheap sandpaper to a piece of aerogel Nigel made years ago.
NileRed ExtraStory of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Sandpaper vs atomic force microscope
"Sandpaper vs atomic force microscope" asks a question almost nobody thinks to ask: when a sheet of sandpaper says 7000 grit, is it telling the truth? On NileRed Extra, the side channel the NileRed team uses for clips and smaller projects, the answer took an instrument most workshops will never see. The microscope was lent by the company icspi, and instead of light or electrons it feels the sample at the nanoscale.
The verdict, as many viewers read it, is close but not quite: the grit came out about a micron off. That turned the comment section into two camps. One half jokes about refunds and the panic at Big Sandpaper. The other half gets technical, pointing out that grit is sorted by sifting, that grains can lie on top of each other, and that one small square may not speak for the whole sheet. More than one person wants it compared with a trusted brand.
A day later the same microscope went over a piece of aerogel, the famously light solid Nigel made years ago, and the title promises its surface is crazy. It did well too, though the sandpaper drew far more viewers, passing two million in a week. Even a gold hunt from the week before, with Reggie testing circuit boards using an XRF gun after taking apart a scanning electron microscope, is still finding people.
The channel as a whole ran a little below its usual daily pace, but no channel in its science group added more views over the week, about two and a half million.
Published on Trari
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What viewers say
Big Sandpaper is shaking in their boots...
@Futt.BuckersonSee it on YouTubeWell Amazon owes me a refund. 1 micron over is not acceptable
@theboz1419See it on YouTubeModern day ea-nasir, the quality of the grit was a whole micrometer more than what was promised!😂
@zipper125snowputtySee it on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on NileRed Extra right now
- Channel
- NileRed Extra
- Subscribers
- 654,000 ▲ 3,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 2,467,292
- Videos published this week
- 2
- Video published
- September 29, 2026
- Video views so far
- 2,016,419
The numbers
Here is how NileRed Extra's week looks in figures.
💡 Test your knowledge
The atomic force microscope was invented in 1985 by Gerd Binnig and colleagues. Binnig had already shared a Nobel Prize for inventing which earlier microscope?
Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics for the scanning tunneling microscope, which led directly to the atomic force microscope.
