New sander's backer pad is cupped right out of the box!

[Stwood_]

Has your replacement showed up yet?

[KingwoodFan1989]

Nope. It'll show up in a few days. Hopefully it's flat. I made it clear in the e-mail exchange that that's what I wanted, so that's what I'm expecting.

[Robert Adams]

I wouldn't worry about it. Once you start using a sanding pad it's going to wear and warp. This is wood working not a surface grinder or a Bridgeport mill shooting for accuracy in the tenths. Besides is that hook and loop on the sandpaper level, sawdust in the pad. And I could actually see the cup as a good thing anyway. The outer rim of the pad will compress before the center anyway because of how you use it. 

    What I do now is look on amazon and find the best prices on sanding pads. Then I buy the sander I like that has the best priced replacement pads as you will go through many of them. 

      I have a couple DW and PC sanders and though they technically use different pads I use the same pad on both now and just order one type. The holes are slightly off but it works just fine. Also that keeps me with 8 hole paper instead of 5 and 8.

[KingwoodFan1989]

I wouldn't worry about it. Once you start using a sanding pad it's going to wear and warp. This is wood working not a surface grinder or a Bridgeport mill shooting for accuracy in the tenths.

Well, I already have the new pad coming. I'm not looking for absolute perfection...if it's out like 1/64" or something like that I'm not gonna fret too much. But 1/16" I can't really work with in this case. Even though I bought a new soft interface pad to go with it, I still plan to use the sander without that at times, so I'd like it to be as flat as possible.