Speed Settings for the Flex 3401

[Mike Phillips]

I would advice getting a different pads as I found that flat pads are really hard to control on 3401 no matter how flat you keep them (and you can't keep them flat on the entire vehicle)!!!

Good point and that probably has to do with the 100% surface contact a flat pad has with the paint.

Poorboy's VC pads make a difference, a huge one IMO .. the best pads for 3401 by far.

I'm not a fan of VC pads but another option would be the CCS pads or we're bringing in convoluted pads, some people call these waffle pads or egg crate shaped pads but these would make controlling the Flex 3401 much easier.

There's also Kompressor Pads and Cobra Cross Groove pads.


Click here to see all kinds of buffing pads

As mentioned above the 4" pads are breeze to control, so give it a go!

Correct. And in the same way, any size smaller than 7" or 6.5" gets easier as the diameter gets smaller.

Fiber pads are also easier to control due to the characteristics of fiber versus foam.

Man thats not good.
All i have are CCS, Hybrid, HT pads....

Here's some tips, hold the tool in a way that it's close to your body, not with your arms extended away from your body. The further away you hold the tool from your body the more leverage the tool has over you. The closer you hold the tool to your body the more leverage you have over the tool.

And if i use a 4" pad... what's the reason for getting the 3401 >.<?

To buff thin panels and to avoid buffing on body lines. It also helps to work around miscellaneous components on a car body, for example a rear view mirror, a wing, or spoiler, a B-pillar, etc.

What it does teach you is to 'keep the pad flat. A gauge you can use is to keep glancing at how the pad flattens out under the machine as you use it. You can pick up some unevenness if its not held flat.

If you hold it on edge for any portion of the pad it will try to walk on you, so it's self-teaching.

PC style tools are also self-teaching in that when you see the pad stop rotating you're also doing something wrong and need to tweak your technique.

So I guess with the Flex, you still apply the same amount of pressure you would with a regular DA, huh?

Yes.

For correction steps you start out with firm downward pressure for the initial passes and then lessen the downward pressure for the last few passes for each section pass.

We cover this in our new DVD on Flex power tools.

[Bunky]

A great way to "feel" this difference would be to buff using a 6.5" pad and then switch to a 4" pad on the new 4" backing plate. You would instantly find that it's incredibly easy to control the Flex 3401 by switching to small 4" pad.

I have used 6.5-in and 5.5-in and for some reason I like the 6.5-in pads better for feel. It is counter intuitive so really have not figured out why. I tried the VC pads and they were better on horizontal to some extent but less so on vertical surfaces. In part.it was the extra pressure to just collapse the pad. :weakling: