Harbor Freight DA Polisher - New

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beamerstrumpet said:
Not sure if yoru trying to be funny or not.

@ Mikesal57 Works great out of box as stated by others. all mods noted on page 46 and maybe a few b4 that. also pictures on how to add a longer cord to it in a listed link. or look for HF cord upgrade by me.

as long as you ditch the original backing plate, you should be G2G!
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I forgot that part. I needed to replace mine. As most of my pads are 5 1/2" I went with 5 inch plate.
 
Is Valvoline General Multi-Purpose Grease OK to use?

Theres one rated to 250 degrees
and another to 400 degrees

Might the 400 be too thick?
 
mikesal57 said:
Is Valvoline General Multi-Purpose Grease OK to use?

Theres one rated to 250 degrees
and another to 400 degrees

Might the 400 be too thick?
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I dont see why not. I do know from personalexpeirance that bearing grease is too thick. If its not a heavy grease, it should be good.
 
How much of a difference you think it makes by doing this grease mod. I want to do it as well just gotta try to get the right grease and from where
 
From all reports its quieter and stays cooler. Its not necessary, but it dont hurt either. I really like the longer cord I instaled also! I have not done to much since I got mine all done out. hoping to get something done this weekend.
 
Well I just finished doing the grease lube to one of these, and it was super easy.

One heads up I'd share is about the typical HFT quality of the fasteners - the flathead phillips screws that hold the shroud on were partially head-stripped (aka the screwdriver slots stripped not the threads) a little even before I touched them.

Being a clever lad of experienced years I had no issue removing them but I insisted on replacing them w/ hw store replacements (4mm BTW). A little blue loctite as well and they should be completely fine.

Sadly between the relube time and some other chores, my window to give it a practice shot evaporated yesterday afternoon - the car in the blocks ended up only getting a wash and wax refresh instead of an actual polishing and reseal. So real first impressions won't be for a while...

lucky417 said:
is there a way to just put some grease in the hole where u put the allen wrench at?
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I had already been thinking about if a grease fitting would fit there (answer yes of course anything is possible but I mean easily... ) and if so I might try to top-off a little bit to really pack the grease in there... Problem is the red plastic grip-cover wouldn't fit on afterwards so you'd have to screw the grease fitting in, then remove it and tape or plug afterwards....
 
Lucky417

Yes there is a way to put grease in that hole.

PM me and I will tell you how

At some point I would be taking photos and posting
 
So I def leaning more towards just doing the grease mod. I mean why not. If everyone is having great success by Doing it. And hey if it doesn't hurt why not. If its going to make run quiet and smoother/cooler. Perfect.

So I'm sure this has been answered 100 times. Abugt what type of grease do you guys suggest I use. And where can I get it. Sorry I just am a little lazy to look through the threads pages at the moment. :(
 
Biatchzxz said:
So I def leaning more towards just doing the grease mod. I mean why not. If everyone is having great success by Doing it. And hey if it doesn't hurt why not. If its going to make run quiet and smoother/cooler. Perfect.

So I'm sure this has been answered 100 times. Abugt what type of grease do you guys suggest I use. And where can I get it. Sorry I just am a little lazy to look through the threads pages at the moment. :(
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I think it's the pic I posted here (post #510): http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...or-freight-da-polisher-new-51.html#post944848
 
So pretty much you just take the bp off then take off the 4 screws and take it apart cleannas much grease off as you can then re pack and put screws back on then your good to go??
 
Hmmm. Not a great result today.

First real try at using the machine (did the grease change before a true test run...)

Head gets hot as hell with any kind of use, and my grease started to leak out every time it hit a certain temp (grease was a semi-syn supposedly good for high-temp applications). Contaminated the back of the backing pad (luckily not my actual polishing pad...) Maybe I used the wrong grease. Seems I have to open it up and redo it at least... not at all excited about that.

Also the side-handle immediately stripped its threads, and I did NOT torque it heavily... I know many guys don't use the handle anyway but I kind of like the option for certain angles (like doing the roof as I was doing today...) so that was a disappointment.

On the plus side the machine seems powerful and solid when its running but I am concerned w/ how hot it gets and the fact that its melting my grease so it can seep out.

Unrelated is the crappy fact that the rotary/DA adapter I had on the backing pad spun loose at one point, so the backing pad popped off without warning, and I gouged the roof very nicely with the raw adapter stud... Luckily in that case I was practicing on the winter beater car (GOOOOD GD thing I didn't do the nice convertible that I was planning on working on today...) so I am not super heartbroken, but still... paint damage is paint damage and always sux... Guess I need more loctite on that adapter. *$%&&##@ as they say in the cartoonz.
 
With all the "mods" needed to make this thing work right...... why not just get a gg6?
 
The only real mod needed (may not be needed) is to add grease to the gear box. Most of us did it make it run quiter and maybe smoother. The longer cord is for our convenance . The GG6 with the longer cord is about $150.00 another reason is for a second backup
 
spitpolish said:
Hmmm. Not a great result today.

First real try at using the machine (did the grease change before a true test run...)

Head gets hot as hell with any kind of use, and my grease started to leak out every time it hit a certain temp (grease was a semi-syn supposedly good for high-temp applications). Contaminated the back of the backing pad (luckily not my actual polishing pad...) Maybe I used the wrong grease. Seems I have to open it up and redo it at least... not at all excited about that.

Also the side-handle immediately stripped its threads, and I did NOT torque it heavily... I know many guys don't use the handle anyway but I kind of like the option for certain angles (like doing the roof as I was doing today...) so that was a disappointment.

On the plus side the machine seems powerful and solid when its running but I am concerned w/ how hot it gets and the fact that its melting my grease so it can seep out.

Unrelated is the crappy fact that the rotary/DA adapter I had on the backing pad spun loose at one point, so the backing pad popped off without warning, and I gouged the roof very nicely with the raw adapter stud... Luckily in that case I was practicing on the winter beater car (GOOOOD GD thing I didn't do the nice convertible that I was planning on working on today...) so I am not super heartbroken, but still... paint damage is paint damage and always sux... Guess I need more loctite on that adapter. *$%&&##@ as they say in the cartoonz.
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Yeah you should have just chucked the side handle. Those are probably the most useless thing in the box. If you are having to use that thing your using way to much pressure one the paint anyway and that's what causes it to heat up. You push me to hard and I heat up to lol. As far as it coming out of the hole that's what it is supposed to do. It's called a bleeder hole. More often than not as with most things especially with this machine, it's more of an operator error that the machine itself.
 
spitpolish said:
Unrelated is the crappy fact that the rotary/DA adapter I had on the backing pad spun loose at one point, so the backing pad popped off without warning, and I gouged the roof very nicely with the raw adapter stud... Luckily in that case I was practicing on the winter beater car (GOOOOD GD thing I didn't do the nice convertible that I was planning on working on today...) so I am not super heartbroken, but still... paint damage is paint damage and always sux... Guess I need more loctite on that adapter. *$%&&##@ as they say in the cartoonz.
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I'm not sure if the rotary backing plate with the DA adapter is some "mod" I don't know about, but just get a DA backing plate. That sounds downright scary.
 
Hmm, I know it's a bleeder hole and that's what it's there for but I don't think it's normal for the grease to leak out that frequently. I've never had mine leak through that hole either before or after changing out the grease. Try the Sta-Lube Sta-Plex grease from O'Reilly's that most people here are using. Also, just get a normal DA backing plate with appropriate pads.
 
onthespotbg said:
Yeah you should have just chucked the side handle. Those are probably the most useless thing in the box. If you are having to use that thing your using way to much pressure one the paint anyway and that's what causes it to heat up.
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well as I said - I have no interest in the handle except for awkward angles where another way to hold/guide it is helpful, aka reaching across a roof for instance. has nothing really to do w/ pushing too hard or pushing at all really...

onthespotbg said:
As far as it coming out of the hole that's what it is supposed to do. It's called a bleeder hole. More often than not as with most things especially with this machine, it's more of an operator error that the machine itself.
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Sorry, again, don't get me wrong there was plenny of operator error, but in this case it also had nothing to do w/ the bleeder hole. In my case the grease was oozing out of below the head (not the bleed/vent) because the heat made it pass its "drop point" and turned it back into oil.

The operator error however WAS copious , but all because I stupidly believed "high temp" grease would be OK.

Warning to anybody else trying this - DEFINITELY use "EP" rated extreme pressure grease.

Today I redid the whole job w/ red EP grease and duh, no isht ershlock, it worked great just as others have posted - tool ran cool and quieter and no vibration and happy as a clam. Now I'm perfectly happy w/ it (aside from the handle thing... but maybe I can fabricate something better of my own anyway... )

swanicyouth said:
I'm not sure if the rotary backing plate with the DA adapter is some "mod" I don't know about, but just get a DA backing plate. That sounds downright scary.
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Yeah. More dummass on my part. The idea is you can use the same backing plates on either style of tool. But idiotic risk to take now that I've seen what can happen. Suffice it to say that adapter is red-loctited in there within an inch of its life now but if it ever comes loose again its going straight in the trash.

varga740 said:
Hmm, I know it's a bleeder hole and that's what it's there for but I don't think it's normal for the grease to leak out that frequently. I've never had mine leak through that hole either before or after changing out the grease. Try the Sta-Lube Sta-Plex grease from O'Reilly's that most people here are using. Also, just get a normal DA backing plate with appropriate pads.
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Yep exactly. As above it wasn't even the bleeder hole - it was the seams in the casing because the "high temp" grease I tried to use turned to liquid and the housing was never meant to be liquid tight. And I didn't get Sta-Lube but another exact same red EP grease, you are exactly right that works great.

Thanks for replies guys. Hopefully I've used up my allotment of stupid for the next day or two at least...
 
i've used the rotary backing plate with the DA adapter and it would come loose mid way through polishing and it's not worth the risk to have it fly off or accidently gouge the paint, not to mention having to keep checking it to see if it's tight...
 
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