Have you ever wondered why flap discs start to loose effectiveness as the disc wares? On reason is the flap fabric covers the good media preventing the disc from cutting. Let’s brainstorm some ideas on how to remove the fabric that’s in the way. I’m sure we can come up with some clever shop hacks to rejuvenate the disc back life.
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I’ve heard about running the grinder on concrete for a bit brings it back to life. Never tried it though.
Wouldn’t that damage the abrasive also? What about fire? Could it be burned off?
Just grinding off the edge. Here’s a video I watched a while ago about it.
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That would only get the outside edge right?
Not sure if the fumes would be any good for you given the adhesives and whatnot, but a torch might be able to do it. Seems as likely to damage the glue and backer where you still have good abrasive though.
This technique just removes the backing pad from the edge. It doesn’t remove the fabric on the flat part of the disc. Did you see how steep the angle of attack that Justin had to use to get it to cut?
What about flipping the disc upside down and spinning it backwards for a few seconds on a piece of metal. This might be enough to chip off the fabric.
I have just run the flap disc over some really rough cut steel and that removes part of the fabric and gets the disc cutting again.
Is there a bang-for-the-buck sweet spot for flap discs? Wondering if the fabric backing on the ones at 3X the price is engineered to degrade in such a way as to allow the abrasive to keep cutting.
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I haven’t seen the expensive disc fabric perform better than the cheaper disc fabric. I have several 10 dollar discs that look just like the photos above.
Good to know, thanks. Box o’ Benchmark it is…