rotary back plate questions

[imported_paradigm]

i've searched and not found anything conclusive on this...



when i ordered my hitachi, it came with a 6.5" back plate. i purchased a meg's 6" to use with my existing 6.5" LC pads already used with my PC. the meg's back plate has the raised centering thing in the middle, but the LC pads i have do not have a hole in the velcro to utilize the auto-centering feature. it didn't seem to cause a problem when using, but i think it makes the pads a bit uneven due to the portion of the back plate sticking up.



another question...with a PC i found it's easiest when the back plate is as close to the size of the pads as possible (better balance, control, less pad flexing, etc). with the rotary...should i do the same or would a 5" back plate make more sense with the 6.5" pads (safer)?



i'm considering new pads for the rotary...ones that will have that centering hole in the velcro.



thanks!

 

[PRB]

Thought I read somewhere that the Meguiar's centering hub unscrews...am I mistaken?



My only Meguiar's backing plates were made long before the centering hub...I usually use 3M plates on the rotary and DA.



I like a larger backing plate on both machines for the fact that the pad has firmer contact on the surface. With a small plate on a big pad, you get soft, mushy edges and end up doing more correction with the center of the pad than the rest. The mushy outer edges can leave polisher marks from not working the material as thoroughly as the center.



A disadvantage to larger backing plates can be when you have a foam pad without backing material all the way to the edge, such as on Meguiar's foam pads. With a backing plate making contact on bare foam and heavy pressure being applied to the pad, the plate can actually dig into the foam and damage it.