Watch Your Backing Plates!

... As it nearly ended in disaster for me today. Working away with the PC on speed 6, I noticed what looked like little yellow bits of foam being left by the machine, like a pad disintergrating...



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As always when machine polishing, I'm watching the paint like a hawk, and whenever you see something you dont expect, stop! I'm glad I did, as this is the current state of the backing plate...



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Now held only by the thinnest of bits of rubber, it was very nearly off altogether which could have proven disasterous! Thankfully, it was spotted before it caused any issue, but a word of warning: watch you backing plates! Especially if they are getting on a little bit, this one is a good two or three years old.
 
Good advice, that was likely due to using speed 6. I guess the guys over at Meg's keep saying "no speed 6!" for a reason! :)
 
Lumadar said:
Good advice, that was likely due to using speed 6. I guess the guys over at Meg's keep saying "no speed 6!" for a reason! :)



Not sure I agree with that personally, as this backing plate is primarily used by the chap I detail with, who uses the machine only on speed 5 max... its me that uses the speed 6, but my plates on my machines are all fine after similar use only at the higher speed. I think there's more to it than the speed, hopefully at least as the high speed setting of 6 is ideal for working polishes such as the ceramiclear Menzerna.
 
what kind backing of plate? it doesn't appear to be LC, as the one you have looks to have rivets on top of them...
 
I had a somewhat similar experience. I was using a new LC CCS pad to polish out a hood and I hadn't gotten very far on it yet. All of a sudden, the pad completely flies off the backing plate and lands twenty feet away. Since I was using a PC, I had been leaning pretty hard on the machine. Luckily I reacted quick enough to lift the PC up or I would have dug the rough Velcro backing of the bp into the paint. I would have completely destroyed the finish right then and there :eek:



This happened around the time that some people were complaining of defective Velcro on the back of the pads, so I just figured that was the problem.
 
I have had them last for years and also had two come apart within two weeks of each other. One of those was in its first hour of use. :nixweiss
 
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