first time with a rotary. yikes!

[cletus t.s.]

hey guys. figured i would share my first rotary experience with you guys. i got a makita for xmas and this was the first day i had some free time and the weather was appropriate. i've been using a porter cable da for a few years just to give you an idea of my previous experience. i watched many videos and read all i could before attempting the rotary but apparently i didn't pay close attention to detail. my first pass, i put a bead on the hood of my 2002 sonoma and went to pick it up. the bead shot all over me the garage, and my freshly polished subaru. makita 1, me 0. couldn't pick up a bead like a pro so i put some swirl remover on the wool pad. dabbed it on the paint and worked it on on speed 1 and my spirits lifted until i bumped it up to three. its incredible how far product can fly! if the products i was using were red my garage would have looked like a crime scene. the good news is i got it under control eventually and the results were brilliant. i only did the hood tonight but it was the most fun i've had detailing in a while. rops:

 

[5.4 Shelby]

Sounds like fun. I am on the verge of ordering one. I want to take it the next level, but, am a little weary. I like the safety margin a DA provides.

 

[CEE DOG]

Congrats, keep us posted with some pictures and details such as the things that struck you one way or the other while educating yourself on the Rotary.

 

[the_invisible]

If your product flies incredibly far, then I suspect you are starting your Makita too fast. The thing I like about the Makita is that you could set it as low as 600rpm while at the same time engaging the soft start to further slow down pad rotation. I have never had my product shoot far by starting slow. I have never experienced product slinging either. I pick up the products at the 10 o'clock position with the pad tilted slightly to pick up the product. Just do it quickly and smoothly and it should work for you. You should completely pick up 6" of product in less than 1/2 of a second in order to avoid sling.

You don't really have to pick up product at the bead either. The Menzerna bottles instruct to apply products directly onto the pad, spread on paint, then start polishing. Picking up product at the bead is used to save time, and is not really necessary, in my opinion.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

lol This had me laughing out loud. Good post man. Good luck learning the rotary. It gets a bit easier as you work with it more, but getting a perfect, hologram-free finish is MUCH harder than you'd think. Some folks here are pros at it though.