I was wondering if anyone has ever done something to soften their sanding pads? I currently use a couple “soft” pads with an 80 grit sandpaper to shape, but I still find them a little hard. I can still use them, but they bounce off the foam when I’m going through the board. I once used a soft pad from a really good shaper friend of mine and it worked a lot better. It was certainly a lot softer and it was made from a different material than mine.
So, could these pads I have be softened regardless of the type of foam they are?
I can’t imagine any way to soften the foam itself. I have heard of guys here (Herb Spitzer comes to mind) who have glued softer foam to an existing backing pad, cut it to rough size and spin the disc while holding a sanding block against the edge to get it round.
Then you can glue your sanding disc to the built up material.
Keep in mind that there is a maximum RPM that most backing pads will tolerate before flying to pieces. At some point the glue holding the sanding disc and the glue holding the softer foam to the backing pad will likely withstand higher RPMs than the softer foam itself. Avoid the 4" grinding machines - they go up to 10,000+ RPMs… much faster than most soft pads can tolerate.
I’ve had professionally made (store bought) sanding pads blow out when the foam in the middle just started twisting apart. I tore off what was left of the padding and cleaned up the harder backing disc with sandpaper before using contact cement to add more padding. That worked pretty good.
As far as bouncing - you might double check for any warping or out of round aspects to your current equipment.
Is there metal on it? This may be a long shot but try microwaving it. This is coming from and old trick some kids I skate with would do, that may or may not work. When they get knew shoes they’d microwave their shoes to soften them up since skating brand new stiff shoes can suck at times.
Wouldn’t try it on your favorite pad unless you want to guinea pig this one.
Instead of a razor blade, just cut the foam close to desired size, glue it to the disc or existing pad. Once that’s set up, put it on the sander and turn it on to semi slow rpm’s. Put a sanding block against it and sand it smooth, works like a charm!
Fwiw I use 36 grit on my pads super old soft and spongy. Scuff the edge after cutting sguare sheet of sandpaper. Run it on the floor a couple seconds to get sharpness dialed in. This cuts just right with a slow speed sander. Does not skip across board cuts nice and smooth. Do not use this pad for anything but shaping do not set motor on top of pad and warp it.