Pad cleaning via Air Compressor... need some help

C

Cybercowboy

New member
Just bought a PC7424 with a 6 inch white foam pad. I was in Springfield MO at Grizzly (a huge manly-man type of tool store) and they had one left. Kind of a spur of the moment type of thing. I noticed after I got home and took it out of the box that it has the 5" counterweight (even though it said it was a 6" buffer). Sigh.



I am going to get the CMA DM-KIT (velcro pads and bonnets) but didn't see any 6" counterweights on their price list.



For those PC know-it-alls, should I just buy all 5" stuff or get the counterweight from somewhere else. Or maybe CMA does have them??? If so, I would order it from them to save shipping and hassles.



Suggestions? I'm not in a big hurry, just wanted to get everything I need for spring.
 
Cyber,





I do not believe that CMA carries the counterweights. However,

coastaltool.com carries the counterweights for both the 5" and 6" backing pads. The CMA backing pad which comes in the DM-kit is the 6". Now, that being said. The cost of the 6" counterweight is about 1.95 from Coastal. The shipping is around 5.00 or so. I know, ridiculous! However, after reading all of the posts on whether to use a 6" or not, I bit the bullet and ordered two of the 6"(in case something happens to one) and spent the 5.00 on shipping.



I will say this, I used the 5" weight once with the velcro backing plate from CMA BEFORE I bought the 6" weight. I noticed MUCH more vibration and harshness in the bufferwhen using the 5" weight with the 6" pad. This was greatly reduced once I put on the 6". The vibration was most noticable when I had the speed up around 4.5 to 5(buffing off PPCL). Don't know what it would be like on speed 6, I have never turned my PC up to 6 before.



Is it worth the 5.00 shipping....I thought it would be, since my PC cost me around 105.00. I thought the 5.00 shipping was worth the expense to save any possible damage that the 5" weight may cause while using the 6" backing plate.



Hope this helps,
 
Yes, go to coastaltool.com and get the 6" counterweight. It sure is ridiculous that the 7424 has a 5" counterweight!
 
You can also try Porter Cable Service Centers. It looks like there are 2 of them in Missouri:



Found: 2 businesses.  (1-2 shown)

Show businesses that start with letter:

A B C D E F * H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Porter-Cable Corp

7574 Watson Rd

Webster Groves, MO 63119-4409

Phone: (314)968-8950



Porter-Cable Corp

1141 Swift Ave

Kansas City, MO 64116-4129

Phone: (816)221-2070



Call them, and maybe they'll ship to you for actual postal charges (~$1.00), or wait until you make a trip to St Louis or Kansas City. Have any friends in either city who culd pick them up for you?
 
I'll just get the one from Coastal. No biggy. Just one more thing to track.



Edit: I just ordered my 6" cw from Coastal ($1.95 + 6.00 shipping) and a DM-KIT (vecro pad kit), 2 MF bonnets and a big blue drying towel from CMA. I should be set for awhile now! :xyxthumbs
 
Lately I have been hearing how effective it is to clean your buffing pads with an air compressor. Since I spend so much time cleaning my pads by hand in the sink I was looking for a few pointers as to using an Air Compressor to save time and be more efficient.

First off what HP and capacity rating is sufficient for cleaning pads? I assume you need a good bit of pressure to clean a pad properly. My main use for the compressor will be cleaning pads and removing wheel lugs. Blowing out crevices and carpets etc. will be an added bonus for me.

Most of you have seen my garage space, its not to big and im fanatical about keeping as much open space around the cars as possible so I cant have anything to big or bulky.

Also what brands should I be looking into?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.... KB feel free to chime in I know your an advocate of this :wink:

Thanks everyone
 
I've never cleaned my pads after finishing a job with an AC, but between panels when I need to remove the polishing dust from the pads. I will finish a panel, use the AC and blow the pad clean of loose debris, and press it into a MF and turn it on [DA in my case] to remove any other debris before doing the next panel. I don't know what psi I use, I know it's high, but not enough to bury the debris into the pad, or damage it.

I do love using it to loosed debris in the carpet though, it works fantastic.
 
Leadfootluke said:
I've never cleaned my pads after finishing a job with an AC, but between panels when I need to remove the polishing dust from the pads. I will finish a panel, use the AC and blow the pad clean of loose debris, and press it into a MF and turn it on [DA in my case] to remove any other debris before doing the next panel. I don't know what psi I use, I know it's high, but not enough to bury the debris into the pad, or damage it.

I do love using it to loosed debris in the carpet though, it works fantastic.
Click to expand...

Same here. Brush it off, blow it out and get back to work!
 
I don't really use air to clean my foam pads that much, but for wool and Surbuf pads air is a must IMO.

I have a 60 gal Ingersoll Rand air compressor which is perfect for me as I use it for some air tools and painting, but you may be able to get something much smaller depending on your needs. I have it tucked away nicely in the corner so that it doesn't take up too much room.

done3.jpg




For cleaning the pads I have an air trigger on the end of the hose like the one below. I'll usually set the back of the polisher (rotary or D/A) on my leg and turn it on with the pad facing up. For the rotary I will bump it up to 2800 rpm and D/A I set at speed of 5. As it's spinning you just blow it off with air starting from the outside of the pad in and then back out a few times. I like to angle the air flow with the direction of rotation at first and then I will tilt it against the rotation as it seems to fluff the pads up better. Maybe I'll make a quick video the next time I'm at my house. ;)

ef50059a-d812-4ca2-ba1c-263322f84658-1.jpg




Rasky
 
Ahhh, you're speaking my language here....
I LOVE this air compressor:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00916640000P

I use it on every detail and couldn't live without it. It's totally mobile and easily fits in the trunk of my car. Great for blowing out pads, interiors, engines and anything else. Anything larger isn't portable. I upgraded the hose and vaccula blow gun: http://www.vacula.com/newsite/nyheter/news.php?newsid=21

It just sits in the corner of my garage on top of my file cabinet. Here's a couple pics:

Picture001-2.jpg

Picture002-3.jpg
 
Well...

I am an advocate of cleaning pads using compressed air, especially now that I have been using the Meguiar's D/A Microfiber Discs for several years. They have SO much more surface area available to hold compound and debris compared to foam pads featuring twice the surface area. Compressed air is great for blowing out foam, wool, microfinger, and microfiber pads.

Off the cuff... I typically use 90-150 psi to blow the pads clean, and as for flow, my Craftsman compressor is small compared to others, but let me see if I can gather the figures on it. A-ha! Found them online:

compressor.jpg
compressor-specs.jpg


When I'm using large compressors, I just use whatever they happen to be set at. I think that even a pancake-type compressor would be fine to use for on-the-fly cleaning, and they don't take up much space:

51TRv0bGiLL_SL500_AA280_jpg.jpg


If you have the space, get a larger unit for pad cleaning en masse, or for powering air tools.

In the spring, I plan on making a dolly-mounted compressor/vacuum/ suction box contraption. Compressor on bottom, vacuum stacked above it, and the suction box above that:

stack.jpg

When I need to clean pads on-the-fly, I'll flip the polishing machine over so the pad face is upright, blast the pad with compressed air, and the vacuum will suck in the dust through the suction box. Probably weight about 60 pounds total, and if placed on a dolly, it shouldn't be too cumbersome to move around.

for transport, it would easy easy to pull the four components apart, set them in the truck , and get outta' town.
 
I have the little Porter Cable AC that Kevin had in his post. It's great for pad cleaning, seriously, if you don't have a AC, get one - next to your buffer - it's the next best "got to have" item.

Just do one white single stage paint and you'll know what I mean!
 
You should also look at how much air your impact wrench will require. I have 3/8, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch drive wrenches and used to use them often along with a sandblaster. I bought a 21 CFM at 90 PSI Ingersol Rand new about 21/22 years ago and it still looks and works like new. You won't need anything near this big but with a real small compressor you will be waiting for the compressor to catch up if you use your wrench a lot. Then again for what little you would have high demands for the compressor it might not matter. I would get a vertical tank to save space. If you set up your compressor permanently you should set up your air outlet as far from the compressor as you can with a water separator to keep moisture out of your air tools.
 

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Great idea Kevin! The amount of dust that comes out of the pads is pretty crazy. It makes a pretty good mess and it's definitely not something you want to breath in either.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If you are wanting to use air tools with it then you don't have much of a choice then to go with something bigger then most portable compressors.
 
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