Harbor Freight DA Polisher - New

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WreckitRalph said:
Hey all, I know that I'm a noob AND this is my first post but I have been browsing and reading and educating myself on as much as I could. I decided to purchase a DA and practice my technique on my 97 Black and Silver Suburban, it has 150,000 miles and figured I could practice before tackling my Mustang and Passat. I ended up purchasing the HF DA as well as their foam pads in all three stages. Using Maguire's Ultimate compound I went to work. After a wash and claying of course. I know that I have nothing to compare it to, and very little knowledge/experience but the HF DA seems to be doing well. It pulled scratches and 1500 wet sanding marks out really well. We will see about longevity, I'll post picks when I get back in town next week.
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Welcome to the site. If what I hear is true, then this machine will outperform all the other current Chinese DA offerings in terms of motor speed and centripetal force to keep the pad rotating under heavier loads. However it will have the potential to smoke pads and backing plates on speed 6 under said heavier loads and will likely end in breakage in not a long time of hard use. For the occasional user it may be fine.
 
tuscarora dave said:
I know a guy who has been using an HD polisher and went to HF and bought this unit and he says everything other than the color is exactly the same. Performance and all. I can only assume that if you run it hard like I run my tools, it will be broken in a matter of about 10 paint corrections.
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I thought the rated current was different between the two? I had kind of decided that they were taking the "HF" unit and putting a more powerful motor in it, which would kind of explain the weird "production" pictures and the lack of availability, as well as the noise and vibration.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I thought the rated current was different between the two? I had kind of decided that they were taking the "HF" unit and putting a more powerful motor in it, which would kind of explain the weird "production" pictures and the lack of availability, as well as the noise and vibration.
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I was told by a local detailer who's not a member of any forums that regardless of what's printed about current, that side by side, with the same pad, polish, paint, pressure, you can't see, feel or hear any difference at all in performance. Honestly, with a $20 no questions asked 2 year replacement option, considering the difference in speed and pad rotation is quite better than the other traditional DAs in my tool cabinet I'll be buying 2 of them as soon as my local HF starts carrying them. The risk (a 10 minute drive to HF) is nothing to get the reward of faster production on a regular basis.
 
tuscarora dave said:
I was told by a local detailer who's not a member of any forums that regardless of what's printed about current, that side by side, with the same pad, polish, paint, pressure, you can't see, feel or hear any difference at all in performance.
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That's pretty funny, I guess the spin never ends in detailing products.
 
While I try to stick with discussing products that AG carries when posting here, the fact that this thread still exists suggests that we can freely talk about these machines here in this thread. While this machine is probably not a sound long term investment as far as how long the machine will remain in service until it breaks fails etc. In a busy shop environment, the time savings in less needed technique to keep the pads rotating could pay for the price of the machine and the extended replacement guarantee in short order.

I believe that unlike the PC, GG, and G110v2, (where the occasional bad unit may spring forth) with the HF units, the occasional good unit may spring forth lol. I'll play the odds on this one when/if my local HF starts to stock this unit.
 
tuscarora dave said:
While I try to stick with discussing products that AG carries when posting here, the fact that this thread still exists suggests that we can freely talk about these machines here in this thread. While this machine is probably not a sound long term investment as far as how long the machine will remain in service until it breaks fails etc. In a busy shop environment, the time savings in less needed technique to keep the pads rotating could pay for the price of the machine and the extended replacement guarantee in short order.

I believe that unlike the PC, GG, and G110v2, (where the occasional bad unit may spring forth) with the HF units, the occasional good unit may spring forth lol. I'll play the odds on this one when/if my local HF starts to stock this unit.
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:iagree:
Johny
 
I checked this tool out a while back ( kicking tires, not buying ). Unlike Dave's experience, my store had the Polisher but no pads. I tinkered with it, and the castings on power tools look to be much better than the Zaw Saw I purchased 6 or 7 years ago.

Looked like a decent machine. The only weaknesses I could observe without turning on the tool is that the switch and speed adjustment felt to be of low quality.

Maybe the power & speed switch felt cheap b/c it's a floor model and been tinkered with by tons of walkers by. For the price ( -20%) w/ Replacement warranty, it looks like a good deal for a first DA polisher for somebody trying out the tool for his personal vehicles with a limited budget.
 
tuscarora dave said:
I was told by a local detailer who's not a member of any forums that regardless of what's printed about current, that side by side, with the same pad, polish, paint, pressure, you can't see, feel or hear any difference at all in performance. Honestly, with a $20 no questions asked 2 year replacement option, considering the difference in speed and pad rotation is quite better than the other traditional DAs in my tool cabinet I'll be buying 2 of them as soon as my local HF starts carrying them. The risk (a 10 minute drive to HF) is nothing to get the reward of faster production on a regular basis.
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So the polisher and a 2 year warranty will cost $68 with the coupon. Why not just wait until the GG6 goes on sale for $80 including shipping (usually see this every 3-4 months) which includes a lifetime warranty for just $12 more???
 
ski2 said:
So the polisher and a 2 year warranty will cost $68 with the coupon. Why not just wait until the GG6 goes on sale for $80 including shipping (usually see this every 3-4 months) which includes a lifetime warranty for just $12 more???
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because HF is a 10 minute drive for me. If something goes wrong with the machine, I'll just jump in the car and drive to the bank to deposit a few checks (which I had to do anyway) and drive the extra 5 minutes to HF and exchange the machine and I'm back in action upon my return to the shop.

If the GG should break I'll have to find a suitable cardboard box, some sort of packing material, drive to the store to get some shipping tape if I have none at the shop, package the thing up, call someone to find out exactly what the return procedure is, leave a message because "with my luck" the someone I need to talk to will be out for lunch, wait for a return call, get said return call then either wait several weeks for the new unit to arrive via UPS or get a shipping approval via email (however that works), get the shipment with the box all crushed up because the UPS driver punted it across the truck 6 times during other deliveries, un-package the crushed up box, inspect the new machine, repackage the defective machine using the new box that I found earlier, tape it up and affix the shipping label if one is provided, drive it to the UPS store to ship. All the while I have a time sensitive job sitting in the shop not being worked on, lose the customer and receive bad word of mouth for taking too long to get the job done.

Of course the above scenario is just me being a bit facetious (and hypothetical) , but really...is it that far out in left field? The HF deal would be much less of a hassle for me to deal with as a one man operation with no secretary or steady help in the shop.
 
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tuscarora dave said:
Of course the above scenario is just me being a bit facetious (and hypothetical) , but really...is it that far out in left field? The HF deal would be much less of a hassle for me to deal with as a one man operation with no secretary or steady help in the shop.
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Well that makes sense!!! I forget those of us doing this for a hobby might be inconvienced for a couple of weeks if our polisher breaks down, but it we're not in a situation that it costs us money.

Hope the Sandy doesn't hit you too hard--at least we're somewhat inland!!
 
ski2 said:
Well that makes sense!!! I forget those of us doing this for a hobby might be inconvienced for a couple of weeks if our polisher breaks down, but it we're not in a situation that it costs us money.

Hope the Sandy doesn't hit you too hard--at least we're somewhat inland!!
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Yeah, down time is a bad bad thing in any business. I have about 8 polishers to work with but I just bought a bunch of 5.5" UltraFiber pads and am trying to do most jobs with a DA. With the G110V2 as my only decent DA I'd like to have a few back up DAs even if they're cheapo models. Regardless of having DAs to use or not, the show must and will go on.

I hope Sandy doesn't effect you too much either. I just locked up the shop for the day and the wind and light rain is already here. This will be an interesting week as the extreme bus detail/paint repair job I'm working on needs to be done this week regardless of the weather.
 
You are going to find the HF DA is as good as any other. The unit is the same as 3D is selling. The only difference MAY be the motor, or possibly the STICKER that rates the motor on the unit.

If you think the Chinese companies that make products to sell in the USA are honest ( or ethical) you should read the book "Poorly Made in China". Besides the fact it's a great read, this book explains the shenanigans Chinese manufacturers pull when doing manufacturing for agencies in other countries

These companies will stick whatever motor they can purchase for the lowest price regardless of specs and still sell it under the same rating , or any rating a buyer wants for that matter. The US company is none the wiser until the complaints (or failures) start rolling in.

It's not uncommon for a US firm to contract a Chinese manufacturer to make a high quality item after seeing a high quality prototype, only the manufacturer switches out cheaper components when the actual batch of product is made. These companies also steal artistic and mechanical designs and sell them as their own designs under a house name or even to another company all over the world. The US firm that spent the cash to engineer and develop the product has no recourse.
 
Honestly if it's just like the broken overpriced version that's in my cabinet at the shop, it's a swirl wrecking machine that is also capable of pad and backing meltdown too if you run it hard on speed 6. My G110V2 doesn't do this to pads.

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tuscarora dave said:
Honestly if it's just like the broken overpriced version that's in my cabinet at the shop, it's a swirl wrecking machine that is also capable of pad and backing meltdown too if you run it hard on speed 6. My G110V2 doesn't do this to pads.

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HD polisher broke already? Is it under warranty?
 
I picked up one of the HF DA's yesterday. I haven't had a chance to use it yet and won't until I decide and buy whatever pads I'm going to use. My local HF did not have any pads that I saw.

My observations without having used it yet are:
Extra set of brushes is a nice touch
Feels a bit on the heavy side but I haven't held any other DA's in quite some time so I could be wrong.
Did not notice the "wobble" from a manual spin that SubieMonte mentioned
Switch leaves a little to be desired. Feels a little cheap, no noticeable "stop" at labeled levels.

Overall, so far, it SEEMS to be fairly well put together, worth the $50 I spent on it, and should do a good enough job on the 3 cars I'll be using it on after a 5" BP and some 5.5" pads.

Now off I go to research the million+ options I seem to have for pads to use on this thing so I can put it through its paces sooner rather than later.
 
Stopped by my local Harbor Freight to pick up some shop towels they had on special so took the opportunity to look at the new DA polisher. I have to admit I was impressed--seems very solidly built and felt good in the hands. Speed switch is a continuous switch without detents at each speed. On/Off switch seems about the same as on other DAs. Power cord was soft and much more flexible than the cord on my GG6 (my biggest complaint with the GG--cheap plastic cord--kinks easily). The wobble of the backing plate mentioned by others seems clearly to be the lack of quality of the backing plate itself which shouldn't be a problem since most users will replace it with a 5" plate anyhow.

Have to say if I was purchasing my first DA for use on personal cars I'd seriosly consider this unit so for $68 (with the 20% coupon) you'd get the polisher and at least a 2 year warranty. Only problem that puts it within $12 of a GG6 which are frequently on sale for $80 with a lifetime warranty which I think is valuable to those of us just doing this as a hobby--3,4 or 5 years down the road if my GG breaks down, just send it to Griots for repair, but I understand how this would be a pain for a pro who needs his tools every day.

A note to those considering this unit---the price tag said it was only on sale for $59 until 11/30/12. Who knows what the price will be after that.

On another note: if you go by the rope and cord section of HF you'll find a nice selection of spring loaded "S" hooks--a two or three inch "S" hook makes a great cord clip to keep the polisher cord from falling off you shoulder. One side of the S clips to your shirt and the other holds the cord. Can't beat it for $1.99
 
i bought my HF DA few weeks ago and it works alright. the only other one i have tried is a SH DA comparing it to that its OK for a newbie like me. but HF is not for professionals.
 
I bought the HF DA and the pads on sale ($48 for the polisher and $3.99 a piece for the pads). It performed like a champ with the same results I have achieved with PC, Griots , and Shurhold. Only negative from this one vehicle sample size is that on speed 6 the polisher vibrates pretty bad, and probably has more torque than needed which could be a problem for most.
 
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