VIDEO: Scotch-Brite™ Surface Conditioning Discs Product Demo

Hi I'm TJ deep in the CAM again. Want to talk to you about 3M Scotch-Brite, specifically surface conditioning discs. Now, many of you new to the industry, new to the business ask us "why do we have so many options?" The reason is we have so many customers demanding options from us. Now, the great people in Prairie du Chien who make this for us give us options like SL, SE, LGB, and SC. They give us grades like Very  Fine, Medium, Coarse, Heavy-Duty, and Super-Duty.  

Now, I want to focus you guys in on some starting points for this product portfolio and I brought in Application Engineer Bridgette Shannon here in the CAM Center. Hi Bridgette, how are you doing?  Hi TJ, I'm well. Now, give us some starting points and give us a reason for the colors. Okay, a good starting point would be the Scotch-Brite Surface Conditioning line short for SC and it really depends on the substrate. They work really well on flat substrates, but they're really nice when you have curved surfaces because they allow you to get into these tight spaces due to the conformability of the web. That's a small disc right there!

Yes, the most popular attachment form would be the TR Roloc form and they range in different sizes from one inch all the way to a four-inch. We also have different densities for the backup pad. We have a really soft pad and it goes into a really hard pad. Today, we're going to be utilizing the medium grade on a medium backup pad, and as you can see it's just going to twist onto the attachment and it continues to self-sharpen as it's running on the tool.

Okay, now there are so many different tools out there. You've got third horsepower,  half horsepower, one horsepower. The coated really likes the one horsepower. They really need to self -sharpen on that. With Scotch-Brite, we're more concerned about speed because it's working with nylon. What kind of speed are we talking about?  Do you have 12,000 or 15,000 or do you have 25,000 RPM? What kind of speed are we talking about here?  Well, it's always best to run at the slower speed  and with the three-inch that we're going to be running with today, it's probably the 15,000.  

Okay, and so you asked about the colors. The colors represent the grade range. Very Fine, Medium, and Coarse grade. They're really nice for a variety of substrates. They can be used on aluminum substrates, stainless steel, carbon steel, and also on brass.  Many people say that Scotch-Brite lasts a long time. Why is that? Yeah, Scotch-Brite does last a long time and it's due to the three-dimensional web, but there are some things that you should be mindful of. It's the attachment type that makes a difference. If you're running in high-pressure applications, that's a sharp corner right there. Sometimes running on a sharp corner, you can see that tearing on the edge. In cases like that, I would recommend switching to a softer backup pad. I like this 947 pad. It's pretty soft here.  

Another case may be loading. The loading effect. The nylon hasn't broken down, has it? Right, and in that case I would recommend switching to a harder backup.   Like the space plate here will break that down.  In extreme cases, you may even see some burning with the web not breaking down at all. But the ideal breakdown of the pad would be a good usage of the disc and a breakdown of the web. That nylon is really worn down there! That's pretty even. They probably used a 917 pad with a foam insert here. Yes, pairs  really well with that. Now I'd like to get some demos here. Why don't we get smocked up, okay?

Alright, now that we've got our PPE on, let's look at some of these demo pieces.   It looks like we have some 80 grit on some aluminum here. Traditionally, I would use a coated 120 grit or 150 grit on a random orbital sander.  Now you're thinking Scotch-Brite can do this?   Yeah, I'd recommend going with the coarse grade Scotch Brite and the SC Roloc disc.   Alright, how about you stand on your side and I'll stand on my side. Let's see who gets to remove the  ink first and let's see what kind of finish we get. Alright? Alright, let's do it!  You ready to start? Yes! Okay, go ahead! Now, to remove that ink mark, I really kind of had to tip my sander. I would have thought the coated abrasive would have been much more aggressive, but it looks like your finish is much, much smoother whereas I got some microburrs here on that. What do you think?

Yeah, and what I like about it is it went really fast, it was pretty smooth, and it worked. Now imagine if you had a five or seven inch, you could really do some work on here. Exactly. So now, we've learned about when you use a coarse disc. Now, let's kind of look at this machined turboprop propeller that we've got here. Machined out of aluminum, and you can see these machine marks are pretty deep in there. What do you suggest for something like this?

Well TJ,  for blending out machine marks like this, I'd recommend going with the Surface Conditioning Medium disc. Okay, let's see what happens right here. Why don't you run that on that? Alright! That blends that out pretty well, makes it pretty smooth.   Exactly what the customer is going to be looking for!

Alright, so we talked about application for the coarse, we've talked about the application for the medium, now we've got the Very Fine  here, obviously our last one. And this requires a piece of brass, a door fixture. With the door fixture, they really want those to pop. They want it really shiny. We have a cast part here. It's got a lot of scratches in here, but we're gonna need to brighten this up. Let's see what this Very Fine does with this 15,000 RPM sander.   Wow, that was already taking some of the nicks out and really brightened that up. That looks pretty good. So now we know what the coarse does, we know what the medium does, now we know the place for the Very Fine.

Sounds good, thanks Bridgette.  Yeah, my pleasure. Bridgette, thanks for joining us today this was really, really helpful! Thanks for having me TJ, it was fun. Alright, are you ready to put these discs to work in your shop?  Contact your 3M rep or go to 3M.com/buyabrasives to see if your preferred distributor has them in stock. Now let the sparks fly.