New tool for me

[Calendyr]

After watching a few of Yvan Lacroix' videos, I have decided to give the rotary polisher an other try.

I purchased a Milwaukee Fuel cordless rotary today and will start using it as soon as tomorrow.

The machine came with 2 waffle type polishing pads. They look like 7 or 8 inch diameter to me. They are white foam and look open cell so I am assuming they are polishing pads, not cutting ones.

So my questions:

1. What pads do you guys use on rotary for compounding?

2. What pads do you use for polishing?

Yvan promotes the use of the rotary to finish and the Long Throw DA to cut. Since I am trying to learn this tool I will probably do both with the rotary for a while to see how it performs compared to the DA.

His technique is to use no pressure with very little products on a damp pad and setting the machine to minimum speed (800 RPM in the case of this specific polisher).

I have 2 3 amps batteries and I am hoping this will be sufficient to be able to do most jobs. I have not tested how long they last yet, now how long it takes them to charge but rotaries use less power than DAs and modern cordless DAs seems to be able to work almost non-stop with a 2 battery+charger system.

All right, any advice regarding this is welcome. Yvan sold me to the idea why explaining you can get a better finish with a rotary if you have the proper technique, and on top of that it's faster to do.

 

[opie2]

Rupes twisted wool coarse blue pads for the most heavy cut. Lake country purple foamed wool pads for when i dont need the max cut, and closer to lsp ready finish.

For small 3 inch work, lake country blue foamed wool pads, lake country force orange/white pads.

Im not one of those few talented folks out there that can humbly finish down or errogantly claim to finish down with a rotary just as good or better than a da machine. Even if you take your time polishing with a rotary you will still in my experience see a little haze.

So far in my time, i save the rotary for the heavy grunt cut work and bring out the flex forced rotation da for the finish work to give the client or myself the best finish possible

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[fly07sti]

^^^I am right there with you Opie. The Rupes twisted wool is an awesome pad and cuts like crazy but finishes ok for how heavy it cuts and the speed at which is does also. I have yet to need a medium polish to remove holograms or haze. Most other twisted wool pads will need that step.
Now depending on the paint I’m working on, I will finish with a GG6 forsoft paint, Flex3401 or Rupes 15 for medium to hard paint.

 

[Calendyr]

Thanks guys.

Tried the polisher yesterday. Wasn't too bad but since I only have flat pads, I was fighting the machine a lot to keep it from bouncing and flying around. Gonna need to buy waffle type pads which are not supposed to do that on a rotary.

So my first impression is that cordless is awesome As for efficiency, I am disapointed. It took me longer to do the hood than it would have taken with a DA. Maybe that is because of the low speed on the machine, I was using 800 RPM which is the lowest setting. When I get new pads, I will try again and maybe it will be faster without the pad always trying to grab the surface and go where it wants.

 

[opie2]

Thanks guys.

Tried the polisher yesterday. Wasn't too bad but since I only have flat pads, I was fighting the machine a lot to keep it from bouncing and flying around. Gonna need to buy waffle type pads which are not supposed to do that on a rotary.

So my first impression is that cordless is awesome As for efficiency, I am disapointed. It took me longer to do the hood than it would have taken with a DA. Maybe that is because of the low speed on the machine, I was using 800 RPM which is the lowest setting. When I get new pads, I will try again and maybe it will be faster without the pad always trying to grab the surface and go where it wants.

What size pads were you using?

And you need to be firm with your grip on the machine, you control it, dont let it control you. Either lean the machine a tick so you are favoring one side of the pad, and or push with enough downward force evenly on the entire pad surface so the machine doesnt walk on you.

If your coumpounding atleast 1200rpm, polishing you want less

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[Calendyr]

Using 5.5" pads. Trying to keep it as flat as possible. I have seen Yvan barely holding the machine while polishing, so I think the pad makes a huge difference. While I was using it I had to use a lot of force to keep it from moving in all directions.

 

[opie2]

Using 5.5" pads. Trying to keep it as flat as possible. I have seen Yvan barely holding the machine while polishing, so I think the pad makes a huge difference. While I was using it I had to use a lot of force to keep it from moving in all directions.

With a rotary, larger pads(6.5) or larger make a huge difference in the machine wanting to walk around on ya

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[dlc95]

I used to use the Meguiar's W-4000 or old burgundy foam for cutting, and their yellow for polishing / finishing. I did have their tan back in the day but didn't use it much.

More recently I was using the blue Buff and Shine to polish/finish.