Flex PE8 Kompakt Rotary? Not designed for polishing paint.

[mwoywod]

I know alot of guys on the forum love the Flex PE8 Kompakt Rotary Polisher, I was just reading about it because i'm looking for a second rotary for keeping equipped with a smaller backing plate just for using in tight intricate areas as well as sharp and curvy panels and headlights. But this tool must be 30 years old? I don't know of any other rotary polisher that DOESN'T have the ability to polish slower than 1300 rpms....this lead me to believe it may have been developed for aluminum polishing?

Speed 2 on the PE8 is 1,600rps and speed 3 is 2100rpms and it goes all the way up to speed 6 which is 3,900rpms. What on earth? If a tool could have an inferiority complex, it would be the PE8.haha

I just can't imagine why Flex would develop it for polishing small intricate body panels on clear coat/lacquer, why would they want the tool to rotate more than speed 3 (2,100rpms)? I would think most professionals would agree that when using a rotary polisher, the desired range is anywhere between 600-1400rpms. I'm just trying to wrap my head around why Flex would have only one miniature rotary polisher available that uses speed settings that are WAY out of the range of what most consider optimal when paired with modern polishes and compounds. I honestly would never use this polisher with foam unless I was polishing glass.

All that said, I've been using the boss mini pneumatic rotary for nearly a month now and it's really is a SOLID well built right angle rotary polisher. It uses very little air and unless you don't have access to a compressor, it can do everything the PE8 can do plus it gives you the ability to adjust the RPM's down as low as you want.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

It's about surface speed, this polisher is meant for small pads, 600-1400 RPM that you mention would be for 5-6-7" pads. And there are plenty of rotaries that don't go down below 1000 RPM. A 6" pad is going to have twice the surface speed at the outer edge that a 3" pad does...so if you want to have comparable surface speeds (to do the same work) a machine designed for pads half the size is going to have to go twice the RPM.

 

[mwoywod]

Damn, you bring up alot of good points. Now that you say that I have noticed that I tend to use about 1600rpms with smaller sized pads (either 2 inch or 4 inch) where I would typically max out at 1400rpms when paired with a 5 inch backing plate. While it does make alot of sense that since the pad is half the size, I would need twice the amount of RPMS to do the same amount of work. I still feel like (in my stubborn mind) even when I'm using a pad that has half the surface size, if I were to use twice the amount of RPM's (2,800rpms vs 1,400rpms) that would still break down the polish way too fast and create way to much heat? (I've never tried to polish at that speed even when using a 2 inch pad on my full sized rotary so this is just a feeling and it has no validation based on real world experience).

 

[osiapstndp]

I vaguely recall hearing mention (that's hearsay) that one of the reasons why the Flex PE-8 spins at high RPM is to dissipate heat. I rarely, if ever, go beyond the second speed setting.

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