HT pad explodes??

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Bigbull2984

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So this weekend I was using some new pads, first I used my LC 4inch to apply polish to my car. As I was working the pad started to blow up like a balloon and product went everywhere. Since I didnt have another 4inch around I switched my backing plate to 5 inch and got a brand new white constant pressure pad. By the time I was done I saw the pad was tearing around the blue foam right before it meets the white part:mad:

Has anyone experienced this?
 
The only time I have had a problem with a 4" LC pad was when I overloaded it with product. I find it really easy to overload a 4" pad because they are so small and it requires so little product using them.

The constant pressure I don't think are HT pads. Never used them. Again tho, if you are trying to polish an entire car with only one pad you will continue to have this sort of problems. You need to swap out pads occasionally or they get over loaded.
 
Buckskincolt said:
The only time I have had a problem with a 4" LC pad was when I overloaded it with product. I find it really easy to overload a 4" pad because they are so small and it requires so little product using them.

The constant pressure I don't think are HT pads. Never used them. Again tho, if you are trying to polish an entire car with only one pad you will continue to have this sort of problems. You need to swap out pads occasionally or they get over loaded.
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Would that cause a pad to expand like a balloon? I did use a couple of pads to polish. Used a couple of 4 inch cyans on correction and gray pads on trunk and side panels.
 
Sounds and by the looks of the fine splatter in the photo, like you lifted the machine off of the paint while the machine was still running and the pad began spinning real fast and the centrifugal force caused the pad to stretch out, growing like a balloon spraying product everywhere in the process. It's a very common rookie mistake that you'll likely experience once or twice more before fully learning not to do it again.
 
:iagree::iagree:
Bigbull2984 said:
Would that cause a pad to expand like a balloon? I did use a couple of pads to polish. Used a couple of 4 inch cyans on correction and gray pads on trunk and side panels.
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I've never had a pad expand unless it was spinning to fast? If you use a smaller pad like these, you want to step your power down and make sure you use good down force.

You said you used more than one 4" pad but before you said you only had 1 - 4" pad so you switched to the 5.5". I'm not being picky just trying to find your problem. Think it was a combo of spinning to fast and product saturation.
 
If you look at the blue foam, it is cut already from backing plate and to much pressure being used. Thats called cookie cutting.
 
tuscarora dave said:
Sounds and by the looks of the fine splatter in the photo, like you lifted the machine off of the paint while the machine was still running and the pad began spinning real fast and the centrifugal force caused the pad to stretch out, growing like a balloon spraying product everywhere in the process.

It's a very common rookie mistake that you'll likely experience once or twice more before fully learning not to do it again.
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That's what I thought after looking at the picture. Not I'm not saying that this is what happened as I wasn't there but when you see splatter dots everywhere that's where they come from usually.


Dave's right too, everyone makes the mistake of lifting their pad off a panel with the tool on full speed at least a few times before you learn to turn the polisher off and allow the pad to slow down before lift it off the paint.

At all my classes and if you watch the Thursday Night Live Broadcast videos I cover this all the time because we almost always have people new to machine polishing.

When this mistake is made, you set the polisher down and then start wiping all the splatter dots off everything and after doing this a few times you learn not to do it.


Here's a tip... don't lift the pad off the paint till you've turned the polisher off and the spinning pad has slowed down...

What not to do when detailing a car!


:xyxthumbs:
 
The Pad Man said:
If you look at the blue foam, it is cut already from backing plate and to much pressure being used. Thats called cookie cutting.
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How do you prevent cookie cutting? I'm starting to get that on my white cp pads too. I don't think I'm using more than 10-15 lbs of pressure...
 
Thanks all. Yes i did lift the pad when it started to balloon up.
 
embolism said:
How do you prevent cookie cutting? I'm starting to get that on my white cp pads too. I don't think I'm using more than 10-15 lbs of pressure...
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I would say simply reduce the amount of pressure... The blue foam is a cushion on the pad. It help to disperse the pressure more evenly. But that means it is a little softer than the pad itself. If you are pushing hard enough to "crush" the backing plate into the foam like that then you are using more pressure than needed most likely. Another option would be to switch out to a std flat pad with out the cushion layer.

 
I had the same issues, and while i have learned a bit since then and I don't seem to get this as much; I found it better to replace them once they wore our with an lc flat or ht pads as the velcro goes all the way to the edge.

As for the ballooning I feel your pain. I had this happen on a pad i just washed and thought was dry. When I lifted up to much on a cuve I sent water and product everywhere thankfully I was wearing safety glasses. Needless to say this is a mistake I try not to repeat :)
 
Yeah Ive done that before, splattered polish all over the windshield of my daily driver.

The pad didnt balloon like that though.
 
I had M80 rain on my head from pad saturation. I originally thought my G100 was shot, but wanted to confirm rather than get a new one at the time so I sent it to Meguiar's and Mike tested it on a TNOG and it worked fine. Operator error. In the beginning I splattered more product than an abstract painter! :D
 
Cookie cutting is caused by too much pressure and the pad starts to curve around the backing plate, which causes the foam to start to get cut.
 
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