Punching Out Center Hole off Polishing Pads for Ventilation DIY?

[SeanKTM]

I have some Lake Country CCS and Flat pads I got for very cheap which I use for trashed paint or single stage paint. Otherwise, I enjoy using Uro-Tec and BOSS pads. While I have no complaints on the performance of the CCS and Flat pads, I do miss the center hole. Not even so much for heat management right now as it`s fairly cool this time of the year, but when I am air drying the pads before storage, it just takes much longer than the pads with center holes. I saw that some are using hollow punch to make their own 1", 2", and 3" pads. Has anyone made center holes using the same tool? If so, any pointers? I ordered hollow punches on Amazon and would like to do this in the next couple of days.

[SeanKTM]

Well, I just did it! The first one or two came out less than perfect, but the rest came out very nice! The CCS pad in the picture was the very first one. The flat pads all came out nearly perfect whereas CCS pads were trickier. I purposely only did three of the orange flat pads and left the other three untouched. I`m going to see if the holes make the pads less durable or cause any other issue. I can`t imagine there would be though. I just washed them, put them in air fluff dry cycle, and I can already tell that they are drying much faster. Very pleased so far. I punched out 8 pads in no time and wanted to keep going but stopped only so that I can test these out and make sure everything is good. Fun stuff.

[noorth]

what a cool idea!

[Rsurfer]

You dry your pads in a dryer? That`s a lot of wear and tear on your pads.

[SeanKTM]

Just air fluff no heat to knock some moisture out before air drying. No harm done, I think.

[Rsurfer]

Just air fluff no heat to knock some moisture out before air drying. No harm done, I think.

Wouldn`t spin drying on your polisher do the same thing, only safer?