Question: Teflon pad

[scott99]

Hi, I post this question in the hope this problem is so common everybody has a fix. Maybe that the fix is to buy a new teflon pad, but I figure someone may have a way to extend the life of the pad.

I am talking about the teflon pad from GRS that goes under your ball vise on the turntable to make side movments nice and slick. Mine has gotten some chips in it that got under the pad picking them up from the work.

So far I have carefuly scaped off all of the chips I could,making sure to keep it as smooth as I possible. This cleaning has helped some reducing the felt drag by at least half, but it still has some drag especially when moving small amounts. Stick then move, stick and move. :thinking:

The surface of my turn table is very smooth with no scratching.

So any ideas? polish on the table, get a new pad? Whatever you may wish to pass on would be helpfull.

Thanks scott99

 

[Beathard]

They are pretty cheap. http://www.grstools.com/workholding/accessories/low-friction-ptfe-pad.html

 

[tim halloran]

scott99: Try a little talcum powder. And replace it frequently.

 

[scott99]

Hi, I know they are only 12 bucks and that may be the best way to go. But I am always surprized how inventive you guys are. Talcum powder will get a try, and any other home grown ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks scott99

 

[Dave London]

Go to home depot,lowes,hardware store. They have for glides or sliders for chairs or tables that you can screw in to the ring I use 3 that are about 3/4 in dia. Good luck

 

[monk]

i eliminated that problem forever- chips that is. i created a nylon "skirt" that fits all the way around my positioning vise. the top of the skirt is duck taped all around the ball, just below the sliding top. this is ugly as sin, but keeps the bed of my vise chip free. if i need to remove the skirt i just peel it off the ball and go to work. btw when i remove the skirt, there's a nylon rinr that constrains the ball to dead center. removing the ring allows the vise to roll over a bed of .25" ball bearings to cover a very large area rapidly.
the nylon skirt hangs down about 15 or so inches covering the ball vise adjustable support. the skirt rides around with the vise and creates no problems.

 

[James Roettger]

I scrape mine with a metal blade occasionally and that seems good enough.

 

[scott99]

Hi, I have scraped the pad very well and made sure the whole deal was a smooth as I could get it. But I still get "stcky starts,so off I go to see what people have thought up. so far I have some really good adivce going(including they are not very expencive). I will certainly cover my table against chips in the future, that just make a bunch of sense.

I want to thank everybody that has put an oar in and will be watching for any more bits of smarts out there. Thanks again.

scott99

 

[silverchip]

Would teflon spray help? It is teflon after all,right?

 

[Big-Un]

Try silicone spray, the kind sold at auto supply stores.

 

[Doc Mark]

My old teflon pad also started to "stick" so in desperation one night I replaced it with a small sheet of plain wax paper. It works great and it's certainly cheep enough to replace every day. I had also tried a teflon powder dusting which did work but not as long lasting as the wax paper.

 

[maplesm]

They make teflon cutting baords about 1/16" thick. I bought 3 8"X14" at Target for $12. Cut them to the shape you want.

 

[Fred Bowen]

I use powdered graphite. It works quite well, but is a bit messy.

 

[JOSIAH HANLEY]

after i scrape the metal clean scrape some of the teflon shavings on the turn table and use it like a powder under the pad

 

[Donny]

I tried spraying PAM(worked in a teflon frying pan) not so good for a vise


Donny

 

[scott99]

HI, I gave a bunch of things a try, but ended up with scaping in the following maner.

I put the pad on a granite surface plate and with a nice sharp cabinet scraper I scraped it down as flat a possible. Now heres what worked for me. After scraping I buffed the pad with a NEW CLEAN 8 inch musslin buff. It heated up a bit, warm not hot but the more I buffed the better it got. I ended up with a very shiny surface that is as slick as spit on a glass doorknob.

Thanks again for all of the input. The wax paper is a very close runner up against buffing.

Thanks again scott99