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| Grinder. 4-1/2 inch grinder, preferably with variable speed, is used to shape your foam. The variable speed is nice if you want to carefully feather the foam or remove small, incremental amounts. In these cases, you would simply set the grinder to a lower speed.
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Grinder sanding pad and discs. To use with the grinder, you'll need a sandpaper backing pad, along with low abrasive sandpaper (e.g., 120 grit). If you don't have, or can't find, the smoother grit sanding discs, take your coarser sanding discs and grind away on the pavement, bricks, or something similar until it's smoothed out. If the sanding disc is too course, the grinder will take off foam too quickly & making careful, smooth shaping really challenging.
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| Carving knife. Don't laugh. These are very useful for cutting foam into basic shapes before using the grinder. Also great for trimming excess foam when you intentionally use a piece of foam larger than you need, adhere it on the seat, and then trim it to size. You'll use this over and over again, no doubt.
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Commercial foam cutter. This Bosch foam cutter is a commercial grade foam cutter that makes quick, smooth work of cutting foam. Unless you're doing this all the time, however, it's hard to justify a price tag of about $400.
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| Pneumatic/air or electric stapler. An air stapler makes driving staples into the seat pan so much easier, especiallly if it has an extended tip (to place the staples in those tight spots under the seat pan. As with most tools, prices range from a lot ($300+) to $20 (Harbor Freight Tools). Truth be told, I use the $20 version, and it works great. Even decent compressors can be found for under $75 (guess where these are made?).
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Heavy duty electric staple gun and 1/4" long staples. This Arrow, 14 amp, heavy duty staple and nail gun takes a bit of muscle to drive staples into the seat pan, but it works. Unless you're using an unusually thick seat covering, 3/8" - 1/2" crown and 1/4" length staples will do the trick. Check out the picture above to understand staple crown and length.
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| Spray adhesive.
Spray adhesive is used to bhond pieces of foam together before shaping them. Although the seat cover holds the seat foam firmly in place, you'll definitely need this if you use multiple pieces of foam in creating just the right seat for you. Higher quality products, such as 3M FoamFast 74, Rubber & Vinyl 80, and High-Strength 90 will give you quick, strong bonds. The less expensive hobbiest, all-purpose sprays will probably end up causing you more hassle than value in money saved. For some informative info on 3M spray adhesives, click here (pdf).
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Respirator/dust mask. Grinding foam can produce some serious dust. Don't do it in the kitchen, and make sure you wear a mask. You'll be happy you did.
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| Tack puller. Simple tack puller is for taking out the staples that secure the seat cover to the seat pan.
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Needle nose pliers and/or diagonal cutter.
These make removing staples from the seat pan so much easier. After you loosen the staples with the tack puller, just pluck them out with one of these. I personally like the diagonal cutter better, as its sharp edges grab the staple more securely. If I can't loosen a staple with the tack puller, you can pretty easily pull it out with the diagonal cutters.
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