Pads for rotary ?

[Bruce B]

Good morning everybody,

Well it's time to buy some pads for my new Makita rotary. I currently have a bunch of LC 6.5" pads for my PC and would like to be able to use them as well. I would like at least one pad for heavy/moderate correction (purple wool ?) and something for intermediate and light correction. A friend of mine owns a body shop where they do a lot of custom paint work and they use 3M products and only two pads, a yellow/biege compounding pad and a black polishing pad (both 3M wavy style). His work is exceptional with these pads and products. The PC will be used to apply glazes and LSP's. Anybody using the LC 7.5" mushroom style pads ? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Bruce B]

Come on guys, how about a little help here. I value your opinions and I don't want to waste money on pads I won't use.

[mshu7]

Check out the LC 7.5" Smart Curve CCS pads. White, grey, and blue would be the most popular choices. Purple wool would be good for correction. Also, blue and grey 3M (waffle weave)pads but AG doesn't sell those. If you can get get a bottle of 3M Ultrafina SE, do it. It's a great finishing polish.

[bryansbestwax]

Edge pads all the way. Less swirling and vibration. Get a black wool pad for compounding, aqua wool for polishing and blue foam with wave for swirl removal and/or polish glazing. Tried all the other and nothing does it better.

[mshu7]

I've got all of the Edge 2000 foam pads and I didn't care for them at all. I've been trying to sell them for the past 3-4 months and nobody wants them.

The Edge wool on the other hand does seem to be pretty good. I've got the black, blue, and aqua wool pads and so far I like them. I wouldn't recommend the 2000 series pads though.

If you do a search for "foam pad review" on another detailing board (PM me and I'll shoot you the link), you'll see the favorites seem to be from 3M, LC, & Meg's.

[Jimmie]

Originally Posted by bryansbestwax

Edge pads all the way. Less swirling and vibration. Get a black wool pad for compounding, aqua wool for polishing and blue foam with wave for swirl removal and/or polish glazing. Tried all the other and nothing does it better.

. Exactly the same pads I use, but rarely use the black wool. Use the aqua wool and blue foam mostly.
Just get a rotary backing plate for your LC's for minimal exspense. They'll work fine.

[mshu7]

How are you guys cleaning your wool pads? I just recently started using the Edge wool pads. I spur after each panel, but I didn't spur one of my pads the other day after I was finished so the product has dried into the wool. I've tried spurring, but it still seems doesn't seem very clean.

[Bruce B]

Good morning everybody,
Thank you for all the replies. It's been about 40 years since I used a rotary (it looked like a 1/2" drill) with wool pads. Back then I was rubbing out 600 grit sanding scratches on lacquer and DuPont "Lucite" using Orange compound. Boy, things have come a long way since then !