Benefits of wool pad over microfiber

[Kensprecision]

Hello autogeek i ordered a pc7424 with hex logic pads, i see a ton about lake county pads and those will definitely be my next order. what are benefits exclusively of wool pads over microfiber pads? I do not use to apply wax, mainly use for polish, compounding, paint transfer removal, and headlight restorations. should i upgrade to wool pads or stick to the microfibers?

[Mike Phillips]

Fiber pads cut more than foam pads.

Fibers are a type of abrasive. This is why they cut paint better and also why they don't finish out as consistently across the widest spectrum of paint systems as foam pads.


Whatever type of pad you choose to use remember,

Thin is in...


Simply put thin pads rotate MUCH better than thick pads on free spinning tools like the Porter Cable. The trend has been and will be for thin pads for these types of tool, not thick pads.

Autogeek offers ThinPro pads in 5.5" and 6.5" and Meguiar's offers thin foam discs.



Here's an article I wrote on this topic

Lake Country ThinPro Foam Buffing Pads exclusively at Autogeek


What can I say?

Thin is in!


For comparison

The Meguiar's thin foam discs on the left and the Lake Country thin foam pads on the right.

Meguiar's foam discs measures 11/16 of an inch thin or 17.5mm thin if you prefer the metric system.

The Lake Country ThinPro pads officially measure in at 11/16" or 17.5mm as stated by David Patterson at Lake Country.

As you can see by the below picture the Lake Country ThinPro look to be a tick thinner than the Meguiar's foam discs. This minute difference could be created by the thickness of the Velcro, or even adhesive or a natural bow to the pads after being boxed and stored. Big picture is the trend for foam buffing pads for free spinning random orbital polishers has for the pad to get thinner and thinner and the new offering from Lake Country validates this trend and now you have two brands to choose from.

By stacking 3 pads from each brand next to each other the small difference becomes more visible.




Fact is you really don't want or need to get any thinner than these pads as there is something to be said for having some level of mass or material between the paint and your backing plate. If pads were to be come any thinner it might be necessary to use them with a foam interface pad and then you've moved away from the entire idea of using thin foam pads.



More comparisons

Lake Country 5.5" foam flat pads on the left and Lake Country ThinPro foam pads on the right.





Pad options...

Meguiar's offers three foam discs, cutting (maroon), polishing (yellow), finishing or machine waxing (black)

ThinPro foam pads are available in 5 flavors, see the graphic below for specifics.








ThinPro pads are available in 5.5" diameter and 6.5" pads.


On Autogeek.com

Lake Country ThinPro Foam Pad System 5.5 inch

Lake Country ThinPro Foam Pad System 6.5 inch

[axel06]

Woot woot axel like thinpro foam pads 5.5 on the porter cable. Thats a win win

[Kensprecision]

wow thanks for all the great information! so for cutting and compounding purposes you would want to go wool and for finishing you want foam? i have the thick hex logic right now and i would give them mixed reviews. i think its more my product(v34) thats not up to par.