Technical Honest tool review inside- Surface Conditioner Tool

So, I was on the fence about buying one of these, but I decided to give it a shot.

Eastwood came up with the concept and in normal fashion the design was copied. From what I hear there is a pending lawsuit, but that is for the corporate lawyers to hash out.

Harbor Freight is not my favorite vendor, but occasionally they have a tool that piques my interest. This is one of those. I am getting ready to start a build in the near future. This build is a 56 F100.

The truck was bought without the hood, so I found one locally. I have an acquaintance that owns a Louver press. He is gonna throw about 100 in this hood for me. The only prerequisite is that it be stripped to bare metal.

Since I am still finishing up the Dust Bowl Speed Shop World Headquarters, I figured I would mul***ask and let him have the hood while I drudge on with the house/shop.

I started with a brand new SCT that I bought from HF on sale for $99. It comes with one 40 grit drum. That is what we will use. I am going to time this from start to finish to give you an idea of how fast this will work.

The hood has the original primer/paint plus one coat of lacquer primer, the best I can tell.

This is the Hercules HF SCT.

This is the hood at exactly one hour. No breaks or rest periods. The tool ran at max speed for 1 solid hour. I made it through with one drum, but towards the end I could tell it was slowing down as it shrank in diameter.


All in all, I am impressed. The action to start it is kinda slow, it acts like it has a start capacitor or something inline. It sort of slowly fires up. I generally just locked the ****on and got after it. It’s definitely worth the $99 if you can catch it on sale. I’m gonna get some different grit drums to play with and I’ll let you know how that turns out.

 

Looks good did it heat up the panels hood

 

Looks like it does the job, actually looks a lot better than the orbital sander that I used. HRP

 

40 is pretty heavy. I wonder is 80 would have worked? Even if it doubles the time, you have some DA'ing in your future, or a nice coat of polyester high build. Nice review, I need one of those. I'd duct tape my shop vac hose to it.

 

I’ve got the Eastwood one. Year or so back they had a 1/2 price sale and a free tool holder for it
Otherwise I’d have gotten the HF unit.
The Eastwood one came with a 120 grit roll.

 

How many waves or gouges did it put in the metal, hard to tell by the pictures.

 

I’ve been using a paint stripping wheel on my 4 1/2” sidewinder. At $8 apiece they seemed to be a reasonably economical alternative but I noticed lately that Ace upped the price to almost $12 each. I haven’t checked Amazon yet. I looked at the HF unit you bought but I hate to add another tool and another consumable to my cabinet unless it’s really necessary.

 

So, I kept touching the panel, but it was never very hot, I would say no warmer than a sunny day in May. (Not here in Oklahoma, maybe somewhere like Vermont. Here it would be like 290 degrees.) The grit says 40, but the drum breaks down pretty quick and I am suspect that the grit gets less aggressive. It's made out of that crunchy stuff...probably resin and baby cats. The surface was left pretty smooth. I'll probably get like 120 grit flapper drum for it and give it the once over.

 

Hmm...I may need to try one of those. ***uming it didn't do near the damage that a grinder or sandblasting might and looks faster than using a DA or the ****py paint remover that doesn't work anymore after they made it to where you can drink it or whatever... The Aircraft stripper I used 40 years ago would burn holes in you if you got it on your skin and was the fastest way I could strip a car. I have honestly struggled to find a good replacement ever since that stuff became junk.

 

Buy it Bob, I never hang anything up, I’ll send you the tool holder I got from Eastwood!

 

Ive been toying with the idea of getting one but never pulled the trigger yet but after seeing this I think I will be buying one soon. I have my 50 Ford convertible I need to be working on and might need to do a little stripping here and there depending on what it looks like when I get it out.

 

I’ve had the Eastwood one for a few years now. It’s done some pretty dirty work. I’ve been using Eastwood drums, but now that Horror Fright has them, it’s so much easier to run to the local store and pick them up. I can’t complain about the Eastwood one, but would buy the Horror Fright one if I didn’t already have one

 

It is super handy on the large curved area, like the sides of the hood. You get the hang of it in just a few minutes. Obviously, the flat areas work best with the widest part of the drum. I noticed that I could run across it in a crosshatch pattern and it worked faster.

 

Bought one of the HF tools when it was on sale. Used it to strip the factory primer and misc surface rust off the NOS '41 hood, rear fenders, and the used doors for my '47. Didn't notice it making any waves or gouges in the metal. The 40 grit drum did not seem as co**** as that number. Followed up with a little metal work, then 80 grit on a DA, coat of epoxy, Slick Sand, some blocking, and a coat of 2K sealer. Wish I would have had it when doing the huge trunk lid.


The tool worked good, had plenty of power, and didn't get hot in continued use. The slow start speed build up took a little getting used to; just learned to keep it triggered as compared to using a DA.

 

I have one and I used it to strip a 34 Ford that had a lot of bondo on it. That thing just eats bondo! I'm glad I have it. It's not nearly as messy as sandblasting and can do a lot of things you might use a blaster for. It's way faster than a DA. Just buy extra abrasives.

 

It would be quite a feat to gouge a panel with a surface conditioning tool. The grits of conditioning drums do not translate like for like to sand paper because the abrasives are imbedded in a resin that flexes and gives and cuts a many different angles so they don't put in anywhere near the same scratch profile that sand paper does. They are technically not even graded on a number system like sandpaper and each co****ness covers a pretty wide range of actual grits. I suspect some companies use grit numbers to give people a general idea of co****ness.

 

None. It leaves a nice, shiny surface with a little "tooth" in it.

 

If I use something a couple of times, it has paid for itself. I figure I will use it more and more as times goes on.

 

Now shoot some epoxy primer on that hood and post a pic

 

I bought the Eastwood version maybe. six or seven years ago, at the Meltdown Drags.

It works, but fills the shop with rust dust. Best used outside.

Been using HF and Amazon drums.

I get bored after ten minutes of using it, but that’s not the machine’s fault.

 

I still have to do the inside...and then off to punch 104 louvers in it.

I also saw that they have a polishing wheel for this. Could come in handy.

 

I got mine at PA a couple of years back on sale for around $100 CDN. Tried a heavier drum and was very pleased. Machine didn’t heat up nor the metal. Good investment for me!

 

I bought one from Eastwood when they put it on sale not that long after they came out with them. Most of the abrasive material outfits that sell flap disks and sanding disks sell the drums now and they so far interchange well.
The Eastwood at least will let you know you did some work after you use it as you will have to use a few muscles you haven't used in a while. With the right drum for the job it does a great job and so far hasn't gouged anything that I have used mine on.
I'm thinking that they may have been around for industrial use before Eastwood came out with theirs. Sometime back we were watching one of those home remodel shows that had a good looking blond and her dad on it and she used one to buff up a copper panel that was being put over a fireplace in a house and called it a burnishing too,

 

Another alternative to the HF piece is polycarbonate strip discs from Amazon. Chuck one in your 4-1/2" grinder (I ***ume most people have one laying around) and it does the same job with the same amount of effort and you don't have to buy a $100 tool. I bought the 5-pack, stripped my entire car in about 4 hours and I only used 3 discs. Like the HF piece, it left a smooth surface so I went over the whole thing with 80g on a D/A then shot 2 coats of DTM epoxy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B8GQ0BW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

There usually is an industrial use prior to the hot rod industry pimping it. That's the way it happened with the blue poly airline they are selling.

 

@Roothawg thanks for the review!
A couple things caught my eye. You mention going over it with a DA. I think I'd try to metalwork it first before the DA. It will help you see where you need to revisit better that way. It will stink to have to ding out stuff after it's louvered! Same with primer.

You do not want to prime then strip again!

 

So, I only found a couple of places that need to be bumped out. I will do that prior to heading to the Louver press. Once back from the press, I’ll take a look at everything and see what is left. I will have to fill some badge holes that need welded up, but they are away from the louvers.

I don’t really think hitting it with a DA is necessary. I’ll wipe it down with degreaser and put it in epoxy primer.

 

Primer is designed to go over bare metal, sure. In this case, there will be enough heartache if the primer and paint don't play nice (stripping louvers ) to do a test panel. Strip a junk panel and prime it before handing over the hood. Prior Planning Prevents and all that.

 

I bought the Bauer branded version before HF changed the brand name yet again. It works as advertised, and heat build up is minimal. The only downfall is HF charges $32.99 for the co****st (40 grit) drum, while the 60- and 120-grit drums are $11.99. Still, it's a great alternative when you are stripping broad panels without tiny nooks and crannies to worry about.

 

Yeah, I was surprised at the cost on the co**** one. I wonder if any of the Amazon ones will be about the same? I ordered one to trry out. Should be here in a few days. It was $20 instead of $33.