Feedback Needed…Again! – Improved Terminator 3-Step Wet Pads

[Msalemi]

Although our 3-Step Wet Polishing System has been a hit, continually listening to customer feedback has prompted us to seek out how we can further improve this product – and we’d like to ask the SFA for their expertise and experience to do it again!

This time, we are looking for 10 fabricators, 5 of which who have used our 3-Step Wet System and 5 that have not. We need detailed feedback as to the overall performance of the System, as well as exactly how they stack up to competitors’ offerings. As always, good, bad or indifferent, all we ask for is honest feedback.

Our technical director, Eric Pate, has started testing with the following parameters, please read below before submitting your request:

Beginning Edge (showing the surface)


Pad #1 (showing transition)


Pad #2 followed by Pad #3


Pad #1 - 30 seconds on 13"
Moderate water
Maintained consistent muddy water until piece was done.
RPM on Barranca Polisher showed the knob as halfway

Pad #2 - 15 seconds on 13"
Moderate water
Polished until the pad started “biting” the material (grabbed).
RPM was a bit slower, roughly 1/3 of the way.

Pad #3 - 20 seconds on 13"
Moderate water
Polished until pad started “biting,” but stayed a little longer.
Same RPM as pad # 2

“By some standards I’ve seen at shops, we could have been done with this material by Pad #2. Regarding lighter colors, use Pad 1 & 2 then you are done. With Engineered Stones, it’s also a 2 Pad process. However, once you get up past the chocolate brown colors and some blacks, you may need to use our third pad as an optional buff.” –Eric Pate

If you are interested, please send an email to: Michael@continentaldia.com with the following information:
1) Name and company
2) Shipping address and phone number
3) Have you used Terminator 3-Step Wet Before?
4) Have you used any competitor 3-Step Wet Systems, and if so which?

[Joshua Hopkins]

I have used them. I will try the new ones.

[Joshua Hopkins]

Whoops.

[clhilde]

Only once Josh save some for us
Ill try them again
We are using the old ones on lighter stones now and almost everything off the machine we still hit with the 3 pad because it leaves a better shine than a 3000 of any other set.

[Camzl1]

Whoops.

It's all good Joshua, we are looking for existing and new and you would be a good one as you had and issue with, I think emperial brown, if I am correct, so this would be good for you. Just send the info to Michael and he will get you setup as you posted honest feedback

All you apple fans (which I am not). I will give props where props are due and say that the iphone 4s camera takes better pictures than any smartphone I have ever used and even better than an old 8 MP kodak camera I have.

P.S. If you use your web browsers zoom in abilities, Ctrl + the (plus) key. you can really see how, just from the first pad, the shine actually is. To zoom back out Ctrl + the (minus) key.

[Joe Durfee]

I can try them as well if you need us to.

[Solid Rock Oregon]

I would like to try them. We have been a dry pad shop and are converting to wet.

[Camzl1]

Also these pads are perfect for engineered stones. 2 pads and your done. We have improved the characteristics significantly as not to burn. We even were top polishing some Zodiaq blue starlite like material and could not burn the stone.

[Dustin Adams]

I would be happy to try some and give feedback for off the cnc and off the saw processing... if it is no too late.

[graffster]

I wouldn't mind trying some, we are a wet shop with the 7 step pads and lots of polishing by hand

[Msalemi]

HI George,
Thank you for your interest in helping us to formulate testing on this product. At the moment we have all our sets shipped out - I will keep you posted if something comes up.

Best,
Michael

[graffster]

Thanks, all ways a day late

[chad201008]

They are a lot better than the first one that I tried. T profiles and backsplash they work great but on A and V profiles they are a little choppy. I'll be buying more of them.

[Msalemi]

Chad, could you please take a picture so we can examine and address what you are finding as choppy?

[Camzl1]

When u say "choppy" are you referring to the pad biting the stone and is making the polisher''s RPM vary wildly?

[Justzack]

I used them today and they worked great. The # 3 pad will leave the pad resin on the stone if you are not moving fast enough. I used plenty of water and about 2200 rpm for 1 and 2 and a little less for 3. The definitely start to shine with the # 1. I hit the flats and broke the edges of the stone with a 100 pad. The #1 would do it but not as fast. I will play with them on some different stuff. Today I polished super gold which is like Madura gold with heavier veins.

[VThartzog]

We started using them today as well. My hand guy used them on some ceaserstone and only had to use 2 steps. Fantasy white, 3 steps with good shine. Blue pearl was just a tad hazy, black buff brought it out better. So far we like them and my other hand guy is wanting a set.

The darker stone required breaking with a 50 and black buff at the end, but it's still less steps than before.

We will update on how long they last, but I have one guy using only those starting today.

[Camzl1]

Thanks guys, keep em coming. I have yet to have to use a buff pad with this new formulation, maybe a little more time on 2 and 3. If possible, for testing only, will someone strictly use the 3 steps without a 50 pad to give us feedback. We appreciate your time more than we can say thank you, as I myself have used a 50 grit on some pretty rough edges but in the pictures above, that was off of D2 of the cnc and then I started with the 3 steps. I know, I know, 50 pad will win everytime, just for testing is all I'm asking from Saw cuts that someone give us feedback on just 1,2,and 3.

Joshua what edge profile were you having trouble with, so I can duplicate when I get back to the shop? We have some blue pearl laying around.

Again Thanks,
Eric

[Joe Durfee]

We started using them a couple days ago. My guy said that they were better than the last batch we got from Eric and that the times Eric posted were spot on. He polished a Steel Grey kitchen straight off the Combi-Cut with a bevel edge. Obviously, he shaped the bevel first but the finish came perfect. The only thing he ran into an issue with was the waterjet kerf. He said he would like something more aggressive to remove that if it was possible.

I can't say anything on the life yet, but so far, so good. We should have some dark ES coming up soon, so I will post again when he has a chance to work with that.

[Msalemi]

Thanks for the feedback so far Joe. Looking forward to what you find on engineered stone.
We do have a #0 pad that is more aggressive than a 50 grit, which does a nice job removing marks left from the waterjet

[VThartzog]

It was a flat polish. I forgot to tell him about rpms. He is used to running wide open on rpms so I'll get him to slow it down a bit and I will go back and test them personally as well.

[Solid Rock Oregon]

Tried it on some Sienna Bordeaux with a Crescent edge today. Hard to get the pads to bite. How ever the polish wasn't that bad. Needed a final buff to make the shine pop. I will be polishing a bunch of Flat eased next week. On a combination of granite and quartz material. I am curious how they will do with more surface area to bite to.

[Camzl1]

The only thing I have experienced is wide open throttle on the polisher will not allow the pad to work as well. In my experience any vibration and I didn't get good results. So I never open the polisher up more than 3/4 way even on regular 7 step pads. I compare it to the Gillette razors with their vibrating heads that allow the razor to glide better but not give as close of a shave. I will polish some more shapes than a T profile to verify findings and post pics. Thanks for all the continued feedback

[woodhead]

My guys were in this past Saturday playing catch up. This is the note that was left on my desk this morning.
"Pads were nothing short of amazing. Must follow instructions to the letter to achieve good results. The main trick is very slow speed with #2 and #3 pads. Took a minute to really get the hang of them, but once you figure it out you will never look back. Absolutely NO edge work (shaping) with these. Very, very non-aggressive so still need to use 50, 200, and 400 for minor edge work and shaping. Production times were excellent. Achieved better than Marmo results on Uba Tuba sink bowl. Single bowl cut out in 25 minutes - Amazing IMO! 50 lin. inches on Uba Tuba 7-10 minutes to achieve mirror finish. Highly recommend once properly trained!"
Also tried Weha 3-step pads this weekend - "The Wehas are a different story. Could not achieve same results with similar technique. And they are green, which leaves lots of green at slow speeds on quartz. No dice"

Hope this helps.

[clhilde]

We have not tried a saw cut as of yet but off the machine the 1 pad is not as aggressive as the set we have been using(terminator). We found on granite though it has a shine after the 2 pad you have to work longer to achieve the desired results and my thought is because the 1 in not aggressive enough for stone
On ES Hands down the best yet