Flex 3401 VRG Headcount

Guys, I have a prob here. On my second usage of the flex, i cranked it up to speed 6 when trying to minimise some watermarks on a horizontal panel. Pressure used is slight, definately not as much as I would use with a PC7424. Suddenly, i saw lots of small particles and smoke coming out between the small area between the metal housing of the flex and the backing plate.



I quickly stopped the flex and checked. I realised that the felt ring had been burned into the backing plate. Anyone had the same prob? What have i done wrong?
 
Coltagious said:
Guys, I have a prob here. On my second usage of the flex, i cranked it up to speed 6 when trying to minimise some watermarks on a horizontal panel. Pressure used is slight, definately not as much as I would use with a PC7424. Suddenly, i saw lots of small particles and smoke coming out between the small area between the metal housing of the flex and the backing plate.



I quickly stopped the flex and checked. I realised that the felt ring had been burned into the backing plate. Anyone had the same prob? What have i done wrong?
Click to expand...



Yesterday. What is happening (look closer) is that the backing plate is heating by rubbing against the shiny steel case. We likely have the same issue. It seems to me that putting pressure on the pad causes the backing plate to collide with the case causing quite a mess.



Up until yesterday the corrections I had been doing with my new Flex had been light and I had not put any real pressure on it. Yesterday I had a LOT of heavy correction, and I ran into the issue.



Mine is still functional, but this can't be right. Pressure is sometimes requisite to correction. I am not sitting on the thing to get this to happen, just solid firm pressure that even my PC can handle. I need to get some answers.



Should I contact Detailed Image or Flex.



Anyone else have a similar issue?



Anyone have any advice?



:help:
 
KnuckleBuckett said:
Yesterday. What is happening (look closer) is that the backing plate is heating by rubbing against the shiny steel case. We likely have the same issue. It seems to me that putting pressure on the pad causes the backing plate to collide with the case causing quite a mess.



Up until yesterday the corrections I had been doing with my new Flex had been light and I had not put any real pressure on it. Yesterday I had a LOT of heavy correction, and I ran into the issue.



Mine is still functional, but this can't be right. Pressure is sometimes requisite to correction. I am not sitting on the thing to get this to happen, just solid firm pressure that even my PC can handle. I need to get some answers.



Should I contact Detailed Image or Flex.



Anyone else have a similar issue?



Anyone have any advice?



:help:
Click to expand...





Exactly what i went thru. On my 1st try with the flex, i was working on soft Honda black and had no requirement to even use speed 6. Speed 5 and just the weight of the flex took care of pretty much all the swirls and light scratches.



Problem came when i had to correct tougher clear and I tot speed 6 with a little pressure will give the desired results and here's what i have:



Flex01.jpg




Flex02.jpg




Flex03.jpg




The felt ring is now firmly stuck onto the backing plate :nixweiss
 
I hate to ask this, but have any of you read the owner's manual?



I recall someone posting a comment about tightening the nut and moistening the felt ring w/ some 10W30 before diving in. Both of those sound like improvisations, but I'm wondering what the out-of-box instructions say...
 
After receiving mine last spring, the 1st thing I did was take the backing plate off. I did notice the bp bolt was not on very tight at all. Put some grease on the gears, sprayed the felt with silicone, and put the bolt back in with a very large hd washer and a locking washer. Have used it for months with no problems.
 
alicecooper said:
After receiving mine last spring, the 1st thing I did was take the backing plate off. I did notice the bp bolt was not on very tight at all. Put some grease on the gears, sprayed the felt with silicone, and put the bolt back in with a very large hd washer and a locking washer. Have used it for months with no problems.
Click to expand...



I'm dense, and have been drinking beer (a bad combination...) - just want to clarify.



When you reattached the backing plate to the machine, you put the plate down, put in a large washer (what is HD) and then a lock washer before tightening up the bolt?



A pic would be really helpful. Mine is due this week, and I'm going to victimize either my beater or my wife's car with it next weekend...:waxing:



here.jpg
 
hd = heavy duty



I just put on the largest (diameter), thickest (or hd) washer I happened to have in my stock pile of hardware goodies.



This is the lock washer type I used:

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/50499742/Spring_Lock_Washer.jpg



(I'd post pictures real quick, but I'm not setup for pic posting yet. I'm lucky I can log on half the time.)



IMHO, the pressure of the larger surface washer helps to keep the bp from trying to cant, or get crooked from excess side pressure. The lock washer helps to keep it from getting loose.



IMHO (again), I believe that most of the problems are from not checking if the bp bolt was loose from the factory, from the gecko. Which is what I found to be true, in my case. Also, using too much side pressure, like a rotary, will cause the problem. I only use mine, with the pad always perfectly flat.
 
Spring_Lock_Washer.jpg




Here's your image :D



So is there a reason I can't use just the lock washer? My concern is reducing the depth of the bolt in whatever housing it is targeted for.



Really appreciate the help/insight - mine is on the way and I'm going to be very unhappy if I start spraying chunks of it around... :buffing:
 
When you get your flex and take it apart, you'll understand it better. That picture of a lock washer really makes it look very, very thick. I believe that picture was done in macro mode. The lock washer I am using is not as thick as the one in the picture appears, and the bp bolt is plenty long enough to give you plenty of depth.



The bottom line is, when you see the actual size of the top surface of stud the bolt goes into, there really ain't much area there to keep the bp perfectly parallel, especially with the very tight tolerances on the o\s circumference of the bp where people are getting the rubbing and wear, and using anything other than a perfectly parallel pad pressure. The bp is plastic, which in itself is going to, pardon the term "flex". If the part of the bp that goes around the stud was metal, then I believe there would be lesser of a chance of it flexing.



So the whole point is to make the contact surface of the bp bolt as large and stiff as possible to prevent as much "flexing" as possible.



I hope I made sense. I ain't had my coffee yet this morning. As I said before, it's been working for me, so far.
 
I must make a retraction from an error on my part. The part of the bp that goes around the stud is metal.

You made me very curious to see if I had any wear on the o\s circumference of the bp, so I just went and took mine apart and check it. There is no wear or marks whatsoever, not even a scratch. But having it apart in daylight, and looking closer, I see it is metal. When I 1st picked it up, back in early spring, and took it apart, it was late at night, and the metal is painted black, just like the plastic. Sorry 'bout that!
 
KnuckleBuckett said:
Yesterday. What is happening (look closer) is that the backing plate is heating by rubbing against the shiny steel case. We likely have the same issue. It seems to me that putting pressure on the pad causes the backing plate to collide with the case causing quite a mess.



[...] Anyone else have a similar issue?
Click to expand...



Exact same issue here. It is fortunate I checked this thread, because I never would have known what happened.



For me, it was weeks ago that I was working on a couple of REALLY bad stains from bird crap (bird crap of biblical proportions) on the trunk, and I had to put a decent amount of pressure on the pad. All of a sudden, the polisher blew out a bunch of smoke, and it freaked me out. I immediately shut it off. My initial reaction was that I must have burned the paint, but I realized that was unlikely and the smoke seemed to have come from the polisher itself. Then I was worried I'd burned out the motor by using pressure, but it's not like I was standing on it. Also, it seemed to be working fine again right afterwards. I decided to have a beer, then take it easy on the rest of the trunk lid. No more problems after that.



Your post and the one from Coltagious have made me go grab my machine and take a look. The backing plate edges are a bit chewed up and look melted. They look like Coltagious's photo, except my felt ring didn't melt and stick to my plate.



There's barely any tolerance back there and I can see how the plate might hit the housing. I'm sure that's what happened to mine.



I'll try to stay posted to see if anyone else has any problems with this. So far for me, other than giving me a near-heart attack when seeing the smoke, this hasn't caused any problem, but it can't be right.
 
Alice cooper:



Thanks for the pic explanation. Things are much clearer now on how I should go about using the flex. Will try to get the felt ring off the BP and add a locking washer. :D
 
BK_DC said:
Exact same issue here. It is fortunate I checked this thread, because I never would have known what happened.



For me, it was weeks ago that I was working on a couple of REALLY bad stains from bird crap (bird crap of biblical proportions) on the trunk, and I had to put a decent amount of pressure on the pad. All of a sudden, the polisher blew out a bunch of smoke, and it freaked me out. I immediately shut it off. My initial reaction was that I must have burned the paint, but I realized that was unlikely and the smoke seemed to have come from the polisher itself. Then I was worried I'd burned out the motor by using pressure, but it's not like I was standing on it. Also, it seemed to be working fine again right afterwards. I decided to have a beer, then take it easy on the rest of the trunk lid. No more problems after that.



Your post and the one from Coltagious have made me go grab my machine and take a look. The backing plate edges are a bit chewed up and look melted. They look like Coltagious's photo, except my felt ring didn't melt and stick to my plate.



There's barely any tolerance back there and I can see how the plate might hit the housing. I'm sure that's what happened to mine.



I'll try to stay posted to see if anyone else has any problems with this. So far for me, other than giving me a near-heart attack when seeing the smoke, this hasn't caused any problem, but it can't be right.
Click to expand...





I WAS JUST ABOUT TO POST A THREAD ABOUT THIS!!!!



My heart absolutely stopped yesterday while using the flex because there were CHUNKS of the backing plate just coming off!
 
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