DA Polisher burning through backing plates and pads

Hey guys,

Haven't been posting as often, anyways I've been having an issue with my Griot's DA polisher (larger one) going through backing plates and pads. I've had two backing plates explode on me and multiple pads having holes burnt through the middle. Honestly, I'm not applying an excessive amount of pressure on to the polisher. I'm not sure what else could solve this issue. Any car I do, it will go through 3 or 4 pads. The pads all end up being burnt like so:


I've been using the regular yellow LC hook and loop backing plate, recently picked up an adapter to run my Gloss-it backing plate on my DA. Haven't been able to test that out yet, any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong? Never had this issue with my smaller 3" DD backing plate/pads.

Thanks,
Brendan

 

I seem to remember hearing similar issues with GI backing plates. But the true problem is to much heat. It doesn't matter if you use loads of pressure. Long dwell time can have the same effect.

 

Holy crap Brendan! Just got my Grits a month or so ago and have done about a dozen correction jobs with it but haven't had that happen.thats nasty. Have you marked your backing plate to ensure its spinning freely?

 

^that I have not tried yet, I'll give that a go. Never had an issue like this before :shead:

 

Ah that may be it as well, I usually polish at pretty high speeds and run the polisher for a while when polishing with DAs. Maybe I'll have to revise my process.

 

I don't know what to say after seeing that!

 

what speed are you going at?

 

Full speed!

 

What does the backing plate look like? Do you have an infrared temp. gun that you can test to see what the temperature is off the spindle when this happens? Almost appears like the orbital part of the spindle is causing too much friction and thereby producing substantial heat.

 

I haven't experienced anything like that with mine. opcorn:
Yes, post the speeds. GI bp maybe the 'Ming' issue :yikes:

 

Yeah man it has to be a long dwell time or something... I've used pads on my flex Pe14 at speeds 5-6 for polishing steel and never burned a pad like that...

What product did that happen with?

 

Slow it down to 5 and change pads or clean on the fly.

 

speeds 4-6

I wish I could get you a picture, but I threw the backing plate away.

Speeds 4-6, mainly run it on 6.

I've been through DD Uber pads and Lake Country LLC pads. Polishing with Menzerna Powerfinish

I'll give that a shot, I usually do change/clean pads

 

I had the same issue with mine, and I've had 4 different GG6's now. Speed 6 is certain to heat up the backing plate and therefore the pad, causing premature failure in the middle. I think that speed 6 should be used sparingly and stick to speed 5 for the majority of the cutting, although it will still heat up, it won't be as fast.

 

Is it the oscillating spindle assembly that heats up at speed? I wonder what bearings they used in the oscillating spindle or it they used bushings?

 

I believe so, the heat of the head of the GG6 gets to be almost too hot to touch, so I think it permeates and travels down the spindle, so that's why it melts the middle of the pads so quickly. I am going to try the backing plate with holes in it, it's supposed to add a cooling property, and see if that calms things down a bit.

edit: I don't know if it uses bushing or bearings. Maybe someone else can chime in with that info

 

Not certain why its happening but solution would be to change over to the Microfiber pads running at 3-4 for compounding and then use foam for finishing at like 4 and put a mark on the backing plate to make sure its spinning.

Been running Griots DA for a year and never been throw a backing plate. Has to be that the plates not spinning are its putting so much heat into the center your burning it up.

I find running the Microfibers work better then the foam pads and you can run them at lower speeds.

 

BrendanS, did you ever get this resolved? I'm a newb to using DA's and I am having the same issue with my griots. My pads aren't burning through but they are all melted flat in the middle and initially I wasn't sure if that was normal or not but after seeing your thread I'm assuming that it shouldn't happen. I have also noticed that my backing plate gets hot, almost to the point that I can't touch it.

 

I was told the Meguiar's MF pads now have a much stronger adhesive backing.

You may also want to try using a ventilated backing plate like Detailers Domain - Uber 5in

 

Are those Phil's pads? I use the GG DA with the 5.5 in pads on a 5" Back plate. I have done 2 corrections and zero issues. In all fairness my cars were not hammered. I used the green polishing and the Yellow cutting pads. I used 105, 205 and PO85rd.

All pads cleaned up and will be used again.

Good Luck!