The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Foam vs wool buffing pads

Back in the day we only used wool pads on our polishers. Today I see a lot of foam pads offered. Can someone tell me more about foam vs wool buffing pads?

Also, I need to get an electric polisher but my budget is under $100. Any suggestions on what to buy. I'm only going to use it to polish one truck.

not into polishing much so I followed a body guys lead and got a foam pad to fit the angle grinder, cheapest choice for occasional use for compounding, and cheaper is likely the main reason foam is more common now, but my understanding is foam is easier to control and avoid swirls, wool is more aggressive

Bill

I would caution you to buy a low speed polisher. A high speed grinder will be much more likely to burn through. When I was in B&F trade school back when dirt was young the instructor drummed it into us pretty hard to NEVER use a grinder for polishing since they turn too fast. Now if you have a combo grinder/polisher with two speeds...........

Foam is gonna be less aggressive then wool and will take longer.

Woody, there are two polishers listed on CL (Raleigh) might be worth checking out.

I use both pads. Wool to take out the rough stuff and foam for for polishing. Learned this making surf boards. Brett

I use both, the wool tends to leave more swirl marks compared to the foam.
One good way is start with wool and finish with foam.

I recently purchase a polisher from Harbor Freight. It has like 10 speeds I think. About what speed should the polishing be done on? 3000 RPM? It is new paint.

I would go less on fresh paint. 3K is pretty aggressive. If it goes as low as 600 I would start there. I wouldn't go faster than 1 to 1.5K at the fastest on fresh paint.

That makes sense. Last I polished I was using a polisher/sander. It had one speed of 4000+ RPM, It made the paint look dull. So I may need to repaint the cab, but I went out and bought this new polisher so I had the correct tool for the job now. I will try on the slower speed and see if I can get a better shine.