FLEX 3401 Spitting out Black Flecks of Plastic

[allenk4]

Noticed this during an intense session of glass polishing this weekend.

The gears on the backing plate seem to be grinding against the inner gear inside the housing and spitting out very small pieces of black plastic

The unit was purchased less than 6 months ago (5/31/13) and has been used on less than a dozen full details.










I can see that there is some abrasion on the backing plate where it meets the felt ring and the housing of the polisher. I have never lubricated the felt ring, because FLEX does not suggest it.

I cleaned it out with a dental tool.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Should I be concerned?

Thanks

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I've had it happen to me with Flex tool in our garage, usually only the ones that have not had the felt ring lubricated.

Anytime we get a new Flex 3401 in the shop I lube the felt ring right out of the box and anytime I do a backing plate swap I hit her again while the backing plate is off.


Lubricating the Felt Ring on the Flex 3401


First there is no official recommendation from Flex on this procedure but most owners of the Flex 3401 like to lubricate the Felt Ring to ensure there are no issues between it and the hard plastic backing material that it comes into contact with during operation.

For preventative maintenance reasons, it's okay to lubricate the felt ring after purchase and periodically depending upon how much use your Flex 3401 sees.

What to use?I went to NAPA and purchased some Air Tool Lubricant, (see picture), but any light machine oil should work including the traditional 3-in-1 Oil.


Here's the felt ring on the Flex 3401

Here I've placed some oil on my finger ...

and then spread it onto the felt ring...

You can see the oil penetrate into the felt to lubricate it and from here it will migrate through the felt...

You could also place some drops around the felt ring and then spread it and work it in using your finger...

This brand new Flex 3401 is ready to go to work for a new project next week...

:xyxthumbs:

 

[TheCougarGuy]

I had the same thing happen to me. I was polishing boat and was putting a good amount of pressure on the tool. The backing plate was melting against the felt ring. I had to clean up the backing plate with a razor blade then I oiled the felt ring. It's been fine ever since.

 

[Judge]

I had this happen to me a while ago, before the advice of lubricating the ring was put out to the public. It's not exactly the most reassuring sight to see when you're trying to polish paint.

 

[allenk4]

I have now lubricated the ring, but I do not think that is what is happening here.

Very, very little plastic was displaced from the flat surface of the backing plate.

It looks to me like the actual gears of the interface between the polisher and the backing plate are the source of the plastic flecks.

I will have something to polish on Saturday, so we shall see

 

[stilltipping3]

I haven't had this problem and I have also not lubed my Flex. Thinking about it now.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I have now lubricated the ring, but I do not think that is what is happening here.

For what it's worth, I've only ever seen this happen with un-lubricated felt rings.

Flex says you don't need to lube them and they could be right but from what I've experienced.

A: It can't hurt anything.

B: It does seem to help prevent wear-n-tear of the plastic internal components, especially when lots of downward pressure is being applied when people do correction work.


It's the heavy downward pressure that a person applies that causes this this type of thing to happen.

 

[allenk4]

I definitely saw a correlation between heavy downward pressure and this condition.

It happened while polishing glass with heavy pressure.