What’s the Right Hand Pad for Your Surface Conditioning Application?
What's the Right Hand Pad for Your Surface Conditioning Application?
In various industrial and commercial applications, achieving the desired surface quality is essential. Whether it's cleaning, scuffing, deburring, finishing or another surface conditioning effort, having the best tools can make a significant difference. That's why choosing the right hand finishing system is so important.
Ideal for a wide range of surface conditioning tasks and available in various abrasion levels and sizes, hand pads allow you to flexibly conform to surfaces and finish areas that power tools are unable to access. Here, we're providing helpful insights on how to choose the right pad for your specific application.
First, it's essential to understand the role of abrasive grit in your selection process. Hand pads are offered in an array of grits, ranging from coarse to fine. The choice of grit depends on the task at hand and the material with which you are working. In general, the less aggressive the abrasive you choose, the finer the finish will be; the more aggressive the abrasive, the coarser the finish will be.
It's also paramount to choose a reputable brand known for its quality and performance, as quality hand finishing systems ensure consistent cutting action, durability and overall effectiveness. The advantages of using genuine Scotch-Brite™ products have been experienced by industries around the world for more than 50 years.
Scotch-Brite™ is a unique surface conditioning product with abrasives incorporated into non-woven nylon fibers. Combining abrasives with the fibers creates an abrasive system that delivers consistent results over the life of the product. The open web material is load resistant and keeps the abrasive minerals cutting at high performance by limiting clogging of the nylon fibers.
To make a more informed decision about the best hand finishing system for your application, here is a helpful breakdown of our Scotch-Brite™ Hand Pads and their specific characteristics.
Scotch-Brite™ Heavy Duty Hand Pad 7440
This option is the most durable and aggressive pad for quick stock removal. It cuts fast to remove contaminants and oxides in demanding cleaning and finishing applications, and its performance is similar to steel wool grade 4 (minus the rust and splinters). The super dense construction makes it an excellent choice for your heaviest cleaning, deburring and finishing applications.
The heavyweight champion of hand-held cleaning pads, the Scotch-Brite™ Heavy Duty Hand Pad 7440 removes rust and grime and leaves behind a uniform finish on the surface of the workpiece so you can achieve a quality primer or paint job. The ultra durable fibers can take a lot of abuse from aggressive use on the toughest surfaces without tearing or shredding, and it's designed to run cleaner and longer than steel wool.
Scotch-Brite™ Light Duty Cleansing Pad 7445
This pad's conformable web and fine mineral are the perfect pairing when you need a gentle touch for light cleaning or a fine finish. It is ideal for cleaning many different surfaces when a more aggressive hand pad would be too rough. It is commonly used with liquid detergents for gentle but thorough cleaning of dirt or residue on delicate surfaces such as vinyl, porcelain, glass and plastic. It also performs light cleaning on stainless steel, chrome or painted surfaces, as well as wax mold deflashing or top coat rubbing of wood.
Designed to run cleaner and longer than steel wool, the versatile Scotch-Brite™ Light Cleansing Hand Pad 7445 yields results similar to steel wool grade 0000.
Scotch-Brite™ Blending Hand Pad 7446
This pad uses an open, aggressive web for effective hand blending, general purpose cleaning, prep work and finishing. The conformable material adapts to both flat and irregular contours without significantly altering the dimensions of base material. Unlike steel wool, it won't shred during use, rust after use or leave fine metal splinters.
Combining load resistance and uniform wear to provide a consistent cut-rate throughout the life of the pad, Scotch-Brite™ Blending Hand Pad 7446 can be used by hand for precise control, with a hand pad holder for uniform finishing, or on an inline sander to cover larger areas. It is filled with silicon carbide abrasive mineral, a synthetic mineral that is very sharp and commonly used for low-pressure applications such as paint prep. While it breaks down faster than aluminum oxide, it produces a superior finish. Its mineral coarseness blends surface scratches on many metals, wood and synthetic surfaces, and its performance is similar to steel wool grade 3.
Scotch-Brite™ General Purpose Hand Pad 7447
The worldwide standard for surface conditioning, this general-purpose pad is optimal for cleaning, blending, finishing and deburring—faster, easier and with better results than conventional abrasives. Its performance is similar to steel wool grade 1.
Scotch-Brite™ General Purpose Hand Pad 7447 combines flexibility with effective cutting action and precise hand control to accomplish tough cleaning jobs or produce fine finishing results, use after use. Very fine grade aluminum oxide abrasives cut fast and fine, leaving a smooth, finished surface. It is suitable for use on a wide variety of materials and for many different tasks.
Scotch-Brite™ Ultra Fine Hand Pad 7448
The solution for ultra-fine, consistent finishes on metals, woods, plastics and composites, this hand pad renders a performance similar to steel wool grade 00 and is designed to run cleaner and longer. The durable open-web construction is load resistant, offers long life and consistent abrasive action for cleaning, finishing and buffing with no need to adjust, turn over or continue the same project with a new pad. The pad gets into corners and works detailed surfaces without altering the dimensions of the base material.
Scotch-Brite™ Ultra Fine Hand Pad 7448 combines durability for long life and flexibility for reaching tight areas, and it can be used in place of steel wool for conditioning metal surfaces and paint prep. It is a versatile pad for any workshop.
Scotch-Brite™ Clear Blend Prep Scuff 7745
Ideal for top coat rubbing, sealer sanding prior to lacquer, and defuzzing or denibbing wood, this is the third pad in a three-part Scuffing System. When used together, the Scuffing System helps operators achieve optimum color prep adhesion.
Scotch-Brite™ Clear Blend Prep Scuff comes in a 4-3/4 in x 15 ft roll that may be easily perforated into 4-3/4 in x 6 in pads and contains aluminum oxide, a sharp mineral that fragments under heat and pressure, so the mineral renews itself as it cuts. While the abrasive maintains its ability to cut sharply, it produces a smooth and consistent blend. Achieving performance similar to steel wool grade 000, this pad rinses clean and will not rust, which means less mess for operators.
Scotch-Brite™ Durable Flex Hand Pad 64660 and 64659
Clean, blend and finish where conformability is needed, or prep primer for top coat, using these ultra-fine and very fine hand pads. With performance similar to steel wool grade 00 (Hand Pad 64660) and grade 1 (Hand Pad 64659), as well as tightly graded with more active mineral sites for fast, consistent action without compromising your final finish, these pads minimize the time required to scuff. Their flexible construction makes them conformable for more complete scratch in channels, grooves, tight spots and other hard-to-reach areas. They are particularly durable, being specially coated to resist loading and prolong pad life.
The Scotch-Brite™ Durable Flex Hand Pad combines ultra flexibility with effective cutting action and precise hand control to accomplish tough cleaning jobs or produce fine finishing results.
Scotch-Brite™ Production Hand Pad 8447
Designed with precision web and aluminum oxide mineral to offer the most uniform finish, this pad is an excellent choice for projects that require pre-paint scuffing, finishing, contour finishing, blending and cleaning. Like steel wool, it provides an aggressive cut and a clean finish (without the rusting or splintering), and its performance is similar to steel wool grade 2.
Scotch-Brite™ Production Hand Pad 8447 conforms to irregular surface areas and gets into corners without sacrificing performance on aluminum, stainless steel, plastics, wood and fiberglass. Its versatility means it may be used in a way that's best suited to operator needs.
Scotch-Brite™ Multi-Flex Sheets — Highly Conformable Finishing
Scotch-Brite™ Multi-Flex Sheets come on a 20-foot perforated roll and work quickly and economically for sealer sanding, denibbing, defuzzing, highlighting and topcoat finishing applications.
The thin, tough, sharp-cutting non-woven abrasive roll is ultra-flexible and conformable for cleaning or fine finishing. It is a good replacement for steel wool and eliminates contaminants. The ultra-fine grade silicon carbide abrasive mineral is suitable for cleaning and finishing surfaces by hand in woodworking, metalworking, synthetics fabrication and maintenance operations. The three grade options range in performance from that similar to steel wood grade 000 to 0.
Scotch-Brite™ Clean & Finish Rolls
Conformable for access to hard-to-reach areas, the Scotch-Brite™ Clean and Finish Roll delivers consistent results for finishing, blending, polishing and cleaning on a variety of metal, wood and plastic surfaces. The roll stock can be easily cut to any length for hand sanding or oscillating sanders. Clean and Finish roll stock provides consistent surface conditioning for the life of the product.
Scotch-Brite™ Medium Duty Scrub Sponge 74
A highly conformable web laminate to a sponge backing, this dual-action tool is designed for general-purpose cleaning. On one side, it is a medium-duty scouring pad for scrubbing and cleaning. On the other, it's a cellulose sponge to quickly wipe spills and messes, and it can carry cleaning solutions to the work surface.
Ultimately, choosing the right hand pad for your application is crucial to achieving optimal results in cleaning, scuffing, deburring, finishing and other surface conditioning applications. By relying on a quality brand like Scotch-Brite™, as well as understanding your specific job requirements, selecting the appropriate abrasive grit and construction, and using the right size and shape for the task at hand, you can ensure that your hand finishing system will provide the desired performance, durability and efficiency.
For more detailed information about how Scotch-Brite™ Hand Pads can support your organization's surface conditioning needs, visit our product pages or reach out to our team of experts.
