Just to chime in and add some perspective...
The Griot's Garage 6" ROP does have the most power to maintain pad rotation under pressure from my own personal experience but here's the deal...
With either the PCXP or the GG, the amount of pressure you have to apply in order to get a thin, 5.5" pad to stop rotating is so excessive that you
bend sheet metal.
You would never push this hard with either tool for correction work, it's just too much pressure for the task at hand,
so while the GG may have more power to keep the pad rotating under pressure, when both tools are used the way you would use them to actually buff out the car the end result is the same, that is you put the tool on the 6.0 setting with a 5.5" pad and buff out the car.
Key Point -->You don't necessarily finish any faster because you still have to move the tool slowly over the surface when you're removing swirls and scratches.
Somewhere on this forum, over a year ago, I posted that
the GG and even the XP are like safe versions of a rotary buffer and this is true when using small diameter,
thin pads on flat surfaces, in that you can't get the pads to stop rotating when using good technique and that's the feature of a rotary buffer.
You still don't have the same power as a rotary buffer, but the effect is "similar".
And while you can remove sanding marks with a DA Polisher, I would still use a rotary buffer as it is the most powerful tool for effectively cutting out sanding marks.
When it come to DA Polishers,
thin is in, and so is pad diameters of around 5", this is the trend,
and it's not going away.
Large, thick pads just don't rotate well and this equates to slower correction time. Wait till you see how thin the new DA Microfiber Pads are.
Remember, the Porter Cable version was the first tool of this type to prove itself to be effective at correcting and polishing paint, it was introduced to the paint polishing world by Meguiar's in their Brilliant Solutions Catalog back in the early 1990's, I have most, if not all the early catalogs.
The current Meguiar's and Griot's versions, as well as all the other knock-offs being introduced, are all copies of the Porter Cable.
And to tie the above thoughts together, that is Porter Cable and
thin is in, the Porter Cable DA started out as a
sander, not a polisher and the sandpaper discs that are used on the PC are
thin. And your Griot's, Meguiar's or PC DA Polishers can all be used to sand wood like nobody's business.
From this article,
The Free Floating Spindle Assembly - The Story Behind The Story...
Mike Phillips said:
Enter the Porter Cable DA Sander
That's right, I said
sander! The Porter Cable Dual Action Sander is the tool that became the
Tipping Point that was the driving force behind the average person switching from working by hand to working by machine.
The Porter Cable Dual Action Sander with Wood Dust Collecting Attachment for Sanding Wood
Sanding the old finish off using a Porter Cable Dual Action Sander
The exact same tool only outfitted with a foam polishing pad for machine polishing automotive clear coat paints
On speed 6, there's no stopping the pad from rotating! Well, if I sat on it I could. Even on speed 4, it still held up good. I mainly bought it for using 4" pads, but I may have to invest in another one for 5.5" pads(PITA to constantly change backing plates). The vibration isn't bad at all, IMO, and it feels very comfortable in my hand. I can confidently say, it's *much* more powerful than the PCXP, and more powerful than the G110v2. I've said it once, and I'll say it again, it doesn't try to steer you like the Flex 3401(still love this machine, though). The reliability isn't so great as the unit can die on you at anytime, but the lifetime warranty is a Savior. :dblthumb2:
rops:
