Da polisher.... Harder than I thought..

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popcornplayer28

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Hey guys, ok so today was the first time I used my Meguiars G220 v2. What can I say, it's harder than I thought. This is the first time I have ever used a machine, I was only applying a wax but wanted to give it a go.

I found that the machine "got away from me" it felt like it was pulling me in certain directions instead of me controlling where it had to go. I was using the 7" pads that come with the machine.

I'd like to ask if anyone else experienced this there first time and if it's just a case of practice practice practice. Are there any tips you could give me to help me stay in control more.

I look forward to your replies.

Many thanks
Jay (a complete machine novice 😄)
 
It is mainly practice. Pay attention to how the pad is in contact with the surface you are using it on. Try to keep the pad as flat to the surface as possible so it doesn't "run away" from you. Just keep at it, you'll get the hang of it a lot quicker than you'd expect.
 
I never had issues when I used my PC for the first time.
What speed are you working on?
If your working on speed six try going down to 3-4 maybe it will be easier to learn how to operate.

Make sure your putting enough pressure down on the head of the DA, spinning to fast may be your problem, it sounds like its getting away from you.
Also use your hand on the tail end of the unit to help control the DA.
Keep your arm speed slow with good pressure, just don't put too much pressure because it will stop spinning.
You and out a piece of tape or mark a line so you can see how fast it's spinning.
With a little practice you'll get the hang of it in no time:dblthumb2:
 
less wax is more when using a da to wax.I put sealer/wax on by hand and then let it dry and buff it off slow speed #2. Now if your pad gets to loaded up go to a dry area and wax it to pull off wax from the pad. If the wax is dry it will come off alot better and not load up the pad.
 
It's just getting used to it really and that comes with time.

When waxing work at speed 3 or 4 and don't use much product on the pad as a little goes a long way.

Work on keeping the pad flat to the surface, that will help a lot.

For those of use who went from rotary's to DA the transition was easier I suppose because a rotary will walk a lot if it's not held flat.
 
I'm using the 7" pad from Meguiars at the moment. I have purchased some Lake Country CCS 5.5" but haven't tried that out yet.

These are all great coments, thank you guys.
 
Last edited:
popcornplayer28 said:
I'm using the 7" pad from Meguiars at the moment. I have purchased some Lake Country CCS 5.5" but haven't tried that out yet.

These are all great coments, thank you guys.
Click to expand...

You will need a 5" backing plate as you know. :)

The 7" pads work great too with the 6" backing plate, but I use their 6.5" pads with a 5" backing plate more often.

The G110 V2 and the G220 will have zero problems keeping the 7" pads spinning even under good pressure.
 
The 5.5" pads should make the machine a lot easier to use. When you use a machine, the pad has a certain amount of control its trying to take over the user, so the smaller the pad the less amount of control it wants to take. A simplification, but you get the idea.
 
Pad size doesn't matter.
You just don't know who to use it yet.
Go to youtube and watch Meguiar's videos on how to use it.
 
Providing we get some dry weather this weekend I am going to be giving it another go. I went back and checked the machine to see what speed setting I was using and it was on speed 2.

I'm assuming this would not have helped matters?
 
This is gonna sound crazy, but if you can remove that handle give it a go with resting your hand directly on the head of the machine. Pay attention to keep the pad flat, but at speed 2 it should be really easy to stop the pad from doing anything but shaking.

Start on a flat horizontal panel and just practice. Check junkman on youtube. His videos are lengthy, but he is very informative. Just look up pc7424 vids, it's very similar to the megs and much more common to find videos on.
 
It sounds like you may not be applying enough pressure it should be between 8 and 15 pounds that is including the weight of the polisher. You can get a feel for it with a bathroom scale. Get it ready like you are starting a session and place the scale on a table and push down the polisher and watch the weight on the scale this will give you the feel of how much pressure to apply.
You also want to try and keep body centered in relation to the polisher. The farther away the polisher is away from your center of gravity the polisher will skip.
It's not always possible to do this when you are working on a monster hood or roof but with practice you will be able to control it more.
And davidg - Check out Junkman on you tube I learned a mountain of things from him. Vids are long but his sense of humor makes them fun.
 
To apply wax, you don't need to be any higher than speed 3. You don't need much pressure either as you are just spreading the wax around, but less pressure will make it feel like it is "walking" on you a little bit, but much less pronounced at lower speed so you should be able to keep control of it. Other than, just practice and you will get the hang of it.
 
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