Surgical Precision Buffing Tools

[Mike Phillips]

Surgical Precision Buffing Tools

Here's a few tools for surgical precision buffing. I define surgical precision buffing as a way of using smaller pads, smaller backing plates, extensions on your rotary buffer and a lightweight, compact rotary buffer.

Using these smaller pads on a easy to hold and maneuver compact rotary buffer makes buffing out tight areas, thin panels, intricate designs, motorcycles, miscellaneous painted components like rear view mirrors, spoilers, windshield frames, a-pillars, etc. a lot easier and safer.

Going small...




Flexible 3" backing plate




Short pile length PFW pads...





Rotary Buffer Extensions





Cyclo wool pads
These are made for the Cyclo Polisher but I've used them successfully on rotary buffers. You can also use the Cyclo foam pads on rotary buffers as well as other tools.






4" Lake Country Wool Cutting Pad
The back of this style has a flexible plastic liner to prevent the fibers for the pad from bending back potentially allowing the backing plate to buff into the paint.




See how it fits around the outer edge of the backing plate...




Purple Foamed Wool Pads
Below is the new thin PFW on top of the original PFW which as you can see, the new pads is very thin, this means it should work exceedingly well on DA Polishers and the original version is very thick.




And sometimes I like to use the extensions with larger backing plates and pads too...

Extensions for Dual Action Polishers?

There are no extensions for other tools, thought I would add this because the question gets asked all the time. You don't want to try to use an extension on any type of dual action polisher, it's not going to work.

The above isn't a complete collection of everything we have at Autogeek for surgical precision buffing but you get the idea...

As I can, I'll take more pictures of more cool tools and add them to this thread...

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Man I need a PE14.

Thanks for putting this together Mike.

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a few pictures to give you an idea...



Adam buffing on an old 2-door plastic fantastic...








Me using a wool cutting pad on a Flex PE 14 on the top of the fender of this old Chevy





Me following the wool pad with a prototype foam Cyan Hydro-Tech foam cutting pad...






Dampsanding with Meguiar's #3000 Finishing Discs and some just using the new Optimum 3" Microfiber Pads on a Flex PE 14 Rotary Buffer using Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover on this old Ford



















A few pictures here...


Bumblebee - Testing out the NEW DeWALT DWP849X














I have some 3" pads that are not actually available. I asked Eric Dunn for these late last year and have been using them with great results. You can also see I'm using an Optimum Optimum Double-Sided Rotary Adapter attached to a 2-3/4 inch Hook & Loop Rotary Backing Plate with these small rotary buffer pads.


The adapter acts as an extension which allows me to better see where the pads touching the paint as I buff and also works sometimes to give you enough clearance to buff into tight areas.




Previously all the compounding has been done using the new DeWALT DWP849X, now I'm switching over to the Flex PE14, already I like the smaller size and lighter weight, especially for any of the places where I have to be real careful.


These small, 3" foam pads work really well for buffing around,

• Delicate areas
• Thin panels
• Edges

Pinstriping paint tends to be more on the soft side versus hard side so you don't want to run your buffing pads over any pinstripes but you do want to buff as close to them as you can. In this picture I'm using an extension to position the pad a little farther away from the polisher so I can more easily see where the edge of my buffing pad is on the panel.




When buffing thin panels, or working next to edges, hold the rotary buffer with a firm grip and focus on the task at hand...



Edging - Buffing along an edge to knock it out before buffing out the rest of the major portions of the panel. By edging a panel first you don't have to buff near the edges as close when you switch over to a larger pad to buff out the panel.




Here's Andre using a 4" wool cutting pad for the thin panels on this old boat...








I think this was being done to this old Porsche...







The only way to fly on the stainless steel on an old Buick...















Small pads and backing plates are the ONLY way to buff out the windshield frames on Model A Fords...








The side of the grill shell and the exposed frame and wishbones...















Get the big errr I mean get the little picture?

[Mike Phillips]

No Go


I get asked all the time about an "extension" for a DA Polisher. The answer is "no".


I actually mention this in the above article but if you simply scan the article you can miss it so here it is again...

Extensions for Dual Action Polishers?

There are no extension for other tools, thought I would add this because the question gets asked all the time. You don't want to try to use an extension on any type of dual action polisher, it's not going to work.

Because a dual action polisher oscillates, extending a backing plate and pad further away from the spindle is going to make the pad wobble and this will make the tool wobble and you won't be able to do anything when the tool is wobbling out of control.

Using an extension on a dual action polisher would also tend to wear out the bearings that support the spindle faster.


The extension is for use with rotary buffers only. The good news is it works GREAT with rotary buffers to get your pad away from the body of the tool so you can see more clearly what your pad is doing in intricate and tight areas.

[scuff]

No Go


I get asked all the time about an "extension" for a DA Polisher. The answer is "no".


I actually mention this in the above article but if you simply scan the article you can miss it so here it is again...






Because a dual action polisher oscillates, extending a backing plate and pad further away from the spindle is going to make the pad wobble and this will make the tool wobble and you won't be able to do anything when the tool is wobbling out of control.

Using an extension on a dual action polisher would also tend to wear out the bearings that support the spindle faster.


The extension is for use with rotary buffers only. The good news is it works GREAT with rotary buffers to get your pad away from the body of the tool so you can see more clearly what your pad is doing in intricate and tight areas.

Exactly the information I was after. I'm converting my 7424 to 3" pads and gave an extension some thought, thought of the possible end result, then thought, "I'll bet Mike wrote about this years ago." Thanks!