<h2>5. Frequently Asked Questions - <span style="font-size: 18pt;">(Please review <b>BEFORE </b>contacting us!)</span></h2>
<h3> What are Shrinking Discs?</h3>
<p>When using a Shrinking Disc, you are able to shrink overstretched areas and repair damaged sheet metal panels to a like new condition, making for a better quality, longer lasting finish with little or no body filler at all! The secret to them, is they create the heat that is needed to shrink through friction. They produce better results and are much more controllable than shrinking with a torch or a solid tipped stud gun. When using a torch, you are directly controlling how much heat is being inserted, and were it is going. This is easily and many times overdone, resulting in warping and further damaging the panel. With the shrinking disc and its large surface area, it eliminates some of the guess work, especially when smoothing a lumpy panel by only touching the higher overstretched areas! The heat is also more concentrated on the higher peaks of the damage and tapers off to the lower areas, which results in a much greater accuracy of heat placement, in turn ending with a much smoother nicely blended panel.</p>
<p>Once you have started using the shrinking disc and get a little practice under your belt, it will make you feel more confident in your metalworking skills when you can finish a panel with no body filler at all! The more you use it, and the better you get, the less filler you have to spread and sand! It saves lots of time on sanding, keeps the shop cleaner from having less putty dust, and makes for a better quality, longer lasting finish with little or no body filler at all!</p>
<h3>How is it used?</h3>
<p>In normal conditions, you would roughly straighten the panel, tap the dents and low areas up with a hammer and dolly and then make a couple of passes with the shrinking disc, heating and cooling. Look over the panel to determine were more work is needed, and using a hammer and dolly, rearrange or tap up any remaining low spots followed by a few more passes with the disc. After completing several loops of this process, your panel will be smooth, and back to normal surface tension.</p>
<p>When using the shrinking disc after welding in a patch panel to arrive at an almost invisible seam, you should start by carefully grinding the bulk of the weld. While doing this, you want to minimizing excessive heat buildup and prevent thinning of the panel itself. Then the HAZ (Heat Affected Zone, the area that was discolored while welding) needs to be stretched by using a hammer and dolly (with slightly more contour than your panel), striking the hammer "On Dolly". This is required, because the welding process heat causes shrinking just like the shrinking disc does, although it happens in an unwanted and uncontrolled manner. After stretching the HAZ, it will be closer to the original profile, but still lumpy, uneven and possibly over stretched from the various hammer blows. Now is when the shrinking disc works its magic. By using the shrinking disc over this area, and blending around the edges if needed, it will only touch the higher overstretched areas as mentioned before, and shrink them down so the entire weld area is smooth, and has the same surface level. More details on using the discs included in the Instruction Manual.</p>
<h3>How does Heat Shrinking work?</h3>
<p>Shrinking occurs after heating (causing expansion) and cooling metal (resulting in contraction). This happens because while a panel or sheet of metal is being heated, the heated area is trying to expand. The surrounding cold metal is containing the majority of the expansion and holding it in, preventing the expansion from happening. When cooling the panel, the heated metal contracts (which the surrounding metal cannot prevent, in turn shrinking the heated area. Important aspects of this method are heating and cooling fairly quickly. Slow heating is usually more of a problem than slow cooling, as it will let the heat disperse into the entire panel before any expansion containment has taken place, reducing the shrinking discs effectiveness greatly. If heating happens quick enough, some shrinking can occur with only room temperature cooling, but is greatly accelerated and multiplied by cooling with either compressed air or water (squirt bottle or rag), but water generally tends to provide quicker cooling.</p>
<p>These shrinking discs work well on steel, stainless, aluminum, brass and may on some other metals. (it is recommended to use separate discs to prevent cross contamination) Also it only touches the higher overstretched spots that need to be shrunk. So you are able to shrink an area on a panel without worrying about making the problem even worse like you can with a torch. The shrinking disc also works excellent on removing those "oil can" dents that were caused by overworking and stretching the metal too much! </p>
<h3>Which size disc should I get 3", 4 1/2" or 9"?</h3>
<p>The small 4 1/2" disc has a low initial investment (almost everyone has a 4 1/2" grinder), and works great on small parts (for example, stainless trim, grille shells, motorcycle tanks, etc), light damage, tight spaces, or after primer and block sanding, it works great for catching any high spots that were overlooked, instead of beating them in and covering them with filler, without disturbing much of the surrounding primer (as it is more difficult with the large disc).</p>
<p>The large 9" disc excels when working large, low to medium contour panels such as, hoods, roof, door, trunk or heavily damaged panels, because of its greater working surface area. Compare it to block sanding, were on a large panel, a longer sanding block makes it straighter and works more area at one time, but the small ones still work and are needed for some situations as well.</p>
<p>Our newest addition to the shrinking disc line is the 3" disc. The SD3 Disc and Kit were designed to compliment the larger shrinking discs for extreme fine tuning and to get into hard to reach areas.p If there is room for a larger disc, using the larger disc is recommended, as you will have much better and faster results.p After personally using the larger shrinking discs for many years and talking to customers, I found that a smaller shrinking disc would be a great compliment to the shrinking tool arsenal.p The SD3 disc would not be a good option to try to repair an entire 1/4 panel or heavily damaged area, it would take too long and/or just not work very well. However, it is very handy, especially when repairing sandblasting damage from the outer skin being stretched when it is blasted from the backside between the bracing. This creates a Hard Edge of stretching from the blasting process because of the bracing blocking some of the panel. The small lipless discs allow you to get into the open areas between the bracing and even slightly under to finish blending the repair as far as the blasting process was able to stretch the sheetmetal.</p>
<h3>Do I need spare discs?</h3>
<p>If purchasing our Deluxe Kit or larger kit, you are allowed to purchase up to 2 of each size of discs for spares at 1/2 price at the time of purchase. The discs themselves will last a long time, long enough that we don't have an actual lifespan to give you, and since usage varies greatly for different people. The only reasons you may choose to purchase spares are, in case you drop and bend or otherwise damage a disc, loan it to a buddy and he fails to return it before you need it (heard this more than once!), or the primary reason being, if you are planning on using them on multiple different materials such as mild steel, aluminum and stainless steel. You can use the same disc, however you want to be sure you clean it very well to prevent the possibility of embedding tiny steel particles that can rust or cause corrosion into your stainless or aluminum panel. To prevent that from even being a possibility, it is recommended to use different discs on different materials. Our Deluxe 349W+2 Kit includes all 3 sizes of kits, the wrench and 2 spares of each size for a Complete Discounted Kit.</p>
<h3>Why choose our "Easy Shrink"™ Shrinking Discs over others?</h3>
<p>Our "Easy Shrink"™ discs are made using a Special High Grade Stainless Alloy & Manufacturing Process, that creates a long lasting, low galling, crack resistant, safer and higher performance disc compared to older designs. Brian Wolfe (Owner) is the Inventor of the smaller stainless shrinking discs, the correct 4 1/2" size in particular (as well as the new 3" disc), but was then followed by others. The larger discs have been around for ages made by multiple different manufacturers in several different styles, and over the years of using and providing shrinking discs, we have made changes and improvements to the material and manufacturing process that we use, to provide you with an improved quality, safer and better performing disc, as well as introducing a smaller size disc to compliment the large one and for special situations. Many people prefer our smooth shrinking discs over the wavy discs for several reasons. It is safer with the flanged edge than the "saw blade" like edge the wavy discs have. The ridges are not necessary, they create unneeded vibration and noise as the shrinking happens because of the heat caused by friction. The ridges can actually lead to premature failure and cracking due to wearing thin only on the higher raised areas of the disc. We have also worked hard to improve the quality control checks following manufacturing before delivery. I, Brian Wolfe, will personally provide great friendly customer service to deal with problems or answer questions with quick responses with an importance to customer satisfaction. We have also put a lot of time, effort and testing into making reasonably priced quality "Kits" that generally include everything that you need to get you started easily and conveniently with the least amount of hassle.</p>
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<h3>Misc FAQ's</h3>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: What speed of grinder do I need for your shrinking discs?</b><br>
A: For the 9" discs 3000-6000 rpm work great. I personally use an old heavy 6000 rpm grinder. For the 4 1/2" discs, most small grinders run at 10,000-13,000 rpm. They will work great. On the new 3" discs, a standard right angle air grinder at 20,000-22,000 rpm works well. (higher power air grinders work best as alot of friction is taking place and can slow the grinder and shrinking action if it is not powerful enough) This Info is included in the "Explanation of Contents" </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: Do your shrinking discs come with a backing pad?</b><br>
A: If you are buying a <b>"KIT"</b> & it says it does in the <b>"Explanation of Contents"</b>, then yes it does. Our Shrinking Discs <b>REQUIRE</b> a backing pad for proper mounted & usage. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: What type of backing pad can I use for your shrinking discs?</b><br>
A: Most large grinders come with a rubber or plastic pad that is intended for flexible sanding discs, and have a nut that is tapered so it will sit flush with the surface when tightened, these may be used, but some pads may not follow the contour of the discs well and will cause problems when mounting. Also watch out for backing pads that include a Cast nut! (I have seen them break!) Our Kits use machined nuts (very important for safety!) This is why we <b>HIGHLY RECOMMEND</b> purchasing one of our Kits! They include everything you need to ensure a trouble free experience! </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: How can I learn more about metalworking and using these tools?</b><br>
A: A great free place to learn are the Metalmeet and Allmetalshaping forums, as well as a few others. Search the forums and ask questions, there are many nice people there sharing about the art of metalworking. There are also DVDs offered by various individuals focusing on different subjects of metalworking that can be purchased online. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: I love your tool, and would like to tell you about it.</b><br>
A: Great! Feel free to write a response about our tools and include pictures and/or your business/website information if you would like. If you allow permission, I will gladly post your story and link on our website for others to see how well it worked for you. We have many short one line thanks and amazement quotes, and always welcome more, although if you feel like writing more, we would love to put you on our testimonials page with or without pictures. </p>
<h3>eBay Related FAQ's</h3>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: Can you please leave feedback for me?</b><br>
A: Yes of course, but we are very busy, so feedback is left in bulk for everyone a couple of times a month. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: When will you ship, or when will i receive my item?</b><br>
A: Orders are shipped same or next day Monday through Friday. US orders usually take 2-3 days but allow 6 for delays. International orders normally take 6-10 days, but can take a little longer (up to a month in rare cases) due to customs delays that are out of our hands. If you are still waiting, just keep an eye on the tracking info for updates. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: How much is shipping?</b><br>
A: Click on the shipping tab and select your country from the drop down list and click the get rates button. It will show you the proper shipping price. Sometimes we offer FREE Shipping on a few of our listings. Shipping prices are almost always calculated automatically so there is rarely a need to contact us for a quote. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: Will you combine shipping if I buy more than one item?</b><br>
A: Yes, the listing or the shipping info will explain the discount and it is usually added automatically. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: I paid and have not received my item, or I am unhappy because.....</b><br>
A: Please contact us about any problems or questions you have, <b>BEFORE</b> leaving Negative feedback. We strive to keep our customers happy and our feedback at the top! </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: Can I bid on/buy an item and then change my mind?</b><br>
A: Your bid is a contract, and if you win; you need to pay for your purchase. Be sure you want the item <b>BEFORE</b> bidding/buying. If you are unsure, please do not bid. eBay is very strict on this, and a NPB (Non Paying Bidder) report is filed with them if this happens. It is very inconvenient for us and we still get charged for the sale. </p>
<p id="p12"><b>Q: I want to buy an item, but I might not be able to make the payment within 48 hours. Is this ok?</b><br>
A: We like to get items out right away after the sale, but we will understand if you need a little more time to complete the payment. All we ask in either scenario is to send an email saying when you will make the payment, or that payment is on its way. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>If your question was still not answered, please feel free to send an email.</b></p>
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