DIY Pad Washer

i will give a try too

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Awesome write-up. Thanks for all the time and effort that went into writing this. I might end up trying this. I sorta need a pad washer. Well, I would like one, but not enough that I would pay a lot of $$ for one-- so this might just be the ticket!
 
Great Writeup! Soon as I get some time on my hands and the weather warms up, I am making one.
 
Sooo I made a mistake.
I went to use my pad washer for the first time today, and the grit guard was all wobbly when I pushed down.
Well it turns out I messed up one of the horizontal braces.
Don't worry, all of the parts and cutting are still the same!

The Fix:
All you have to do is flip over the first horizontal brace when attaching it to the vertical pipes.
So for the first horizontal brace, have the snap tees positioned so that the cut part faces down.
This way the caps will all descend to the same height before stopping.

After the fix, it should look like this: :checkit:

20140311_1903281.jpg
20140311_1903351.jpg

20140311_190343.jpg


Sorry for the fudge up! :pc7424:
 
And now for the good news!

Once I assembled it correctly, it worked extremely well!

I used 3 different pads:
  1. Orange Lake Country CCS with compound
  2. White Lake Country CCS with polish
  3. Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Finishing with liquid wax

Orange LC CCS:
The orange pad came out mostly clean. There was still some compound left in a couple of the little divots in the middle

So I can see now why they give you that tiny, dome shaped grit guard for getting at the center of the pad. I'm going to see if I can somehow buy one of those by itself, without the whole pad cleaning system.

Here's a couple pics. Once I turned off the flash, the pad looked a lot better!
20140311_183655.jpg
20140311_183726.jpg


White LC CCS:
The white pad came out perfectly clean, so I was rather impressed with myself.
Unfortunately, not impressed enough to take a picture, so just take my word for it.

I have no idea why this pad would have come clean more easily. It could be the product; it could be that the white pad is less absorbent. It is not the color. I looked very closely to make sure I wasn't just missing it.

Meg's finishing pad:
This one also worked perfectly! It's a flat pad, so not quite the challenge the CCS pads provided. And again, I forgot to take a picture.

Milk:
Speaking of things I forgot to take a picture of:
After I got done, the water looked like milk. It was pretty cool, and good evidence that the thing did it's job well. :dblthumb2:
 
Great write-up and documentation! Thanks for taking the time and compiling this, it's a great idea for the budget-minded detailer.
 
My Lowes had 3" springs... no 3.5" springs. Any tips on what you would alter to make this adjustment?
 
Brilliant! :laughing: :applause:

I love DIY threads. They're a joy to read, and yours is no exception.

Thank you for sharing your finding and the thorough how-to for those that wish to give it a go should they feel the urge.

Well done! :cheers:
 
cshamilton said:
My Lowes had 3" springs... no 3.5" springs. Any tips on what you would alter to make this adjustment?
Click to expand...

Just make up for it in the vertical pipes below. If you lose half an inch in the spring, cut the 1" pipe half an inch longer to raise it up! :xyxthumbs:
 
That was me ! I painted the PVC with Krylon Plastic Paint.It's durable and cleans up the whole assembly.I do have one question for Bluebeast,do you glue the PVC together? And whats the function of the horizontal pipes ? My assembly is rock steady in the bucket with out all that extra plumbing.
Great job on the splash guard ! I'll be doing that to mine over the weekend !
 
NYGary said:
That was me ! I painted the PVC with Krylon Plastic Paint.It's durable and cleans up the whole assembly.I do have one question for Bluebeast,do you glue the PVC together? And whats the function of the horizontal pipes ? My assembly is rock steady in the bucket with out all that extra plumbing.
Great job on the splash guard ! I'll be doing that to mine over the weekend !
Click to expand...

NYGary said:
I too did not come up with this ides.It was a post on another site titled "My $35 Pad Washer". I've been painting PVC for years,as with everything you dfo,you have to use the right piant ! Heres the original link :

My $35 pad washer - Machine Polishing & Sanding - Autopia
Click to expand...

Yeah that's the same one I mentioned in the original post. The horizontal pipes are there for support. I did not glue it together, didn't really seem necessary. I looked for something for writing on pvc and couldn't find anything. I'll have to check out that paint. Thanks man!
 
Just got done making mine...... Just under $50.00 for everything. I cut and put it all together in about 30 minutes. I did use a mitre saw for cutting. Works awesome!! A HUGE Thanks to you. Ray:dblthumb2:
 
Ray & Paula said:
Just got done making mine...... Just under $50.00 for everything. I cut and put it all together in about 30 minutes. I did use a mitre saw for cutting. Works awesome!! A HUGE Thanks to you. Ray:dblthumb2:
Click to expand...

Glad you liked it man! :awesome:
Let's see it, post some pics!
 
Just ordered everything i needed for online pickup at my Lowes after work. If anyone is interested, here are the part numbers, you can type them into the lowes website and go the product, add to your cart and pay and pick it up!
These are in order of the screen shots, fyi my cost was like $33 in parts for the washer.
23972
23977
23982
246630
23766
23876
23856
23870
188230
23898

John
 
You, my friend are a genius!!! I'm gonna make one too. Nice work. I been using my compressor but wanted to get a cleaner.

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