Hi everyone,
After reading many posts about how great the Porter Cable, Meguiar's and Griots Garage DA polisher's are and lamenting their lack of availability in Australia, I came across this in a SuperCheap Auto catalogue the other day.
It was advertised on special for only $79.95 so I went and bought one. Before this, I had never even heard about Rockwell tools but apparently they have been around for a long time.
On paper the specs look ok, it has a wide speed range 1800-6800rpm or opm (same as the Meguiars 110v2) and I measured the orbit at about 8mm which seems pretty standard.
The tool actually looks of a decent quality for something that is made in China - it has a nice soft rubberized coating and the location and design of the handle is pretty much spot on. I don't think there would be any need to remove it such is the case with D handles and side handles. The power switch is on the top and the speed dial is on the back end of the tool. It feels comfortable to hold.
The backing plate measures 145mm and is very stiff with hardly any flex. It also comes with a 170mm yellow pad which I wouldn't use on my car as there is no indication of it's cutting ability.
The thread looks like its 5/16" or about 7mm which I think is a standard size - I'm hoping I can buy a better backing plate to suit.
Now to be honest the first machine I bought vibrated like crazy and I had to take it back. If you looked at the polisher from the side, and spun the backing plate by hand, you could see that it was wonky on the shaft. This was a fault of the actual shaft because the backing plate measured flat.
I took it back and got another one (which also had a slight wobble - I checked 4 of them and they all wobbled to some degree). This one is much better however.
My first impression upon firing it up was "that's a weird noise". It doesn't sound very 'smooth' like a quality tool would. But it does seem to have a fair bit of power and I think it would settle down a bit once it is pressed to a panel. The variable speed dial works well and at 6/6 this thing is NOISY!
Now I haven't used the tool to do any polishing as of yet, I won't get a chance until next weekend. I just thought I'd put up a 'first impressions' thread and see if anyone else had come across one of these before?
After reading many posts about how great the Porter Cable, Meguiar's and Griots Garage DA polisher's are and lamenting their lack of availability in Australia, I came across this in a SuperCheap Auto catalogue the other day.
It was advertised on special for only $79.95 so I went and bought one. Before this, I had never even heard about Rockwell tools but apparently they have been around for a long time.
On paper the specs look ok, it has a wide speed range 1800-6800rpm or opm (same as the Meguiars 110v2) and I measured the orbit at about 8mm which seems pretty standard.
The tool actually looks of a decent quality for something that is made in China - it has a nice soft rubberized coating and the location and design of the handle is pretty much spot on. I don't think there would be any need to remove it such is the case with D handles and side handles. The power switch is on the top and the speed dial is on the back end of the tool. It feels comfortable to hold.
The backing plate measures 145mm and is very stiff with hardly any flex. It also comes with a 170mm yellow pad which I wouldn't use on my car as there is no indication of it's cutting ability.
The thread looks like its 5/16" or about 7mm which I think is a standard size - I'm hoping I can buy a better backing plate to suit.
Now to be honest the first machine I bought vibrated like crazy and I had to take it back. If you looked at the polisher from the side, and spun the backing plate by hand, you could see that it was wonky on the shaft. This was a fault of the actual shaft because the backing plate measured flat.
I took it back and got another one (which also had a slight wobble - I checked 4 of them and they all wobbled to some degree). This one is much better however.
My first impression upon firing it up was "that's a weird noise". It doesn't sound very 'smooth' like a quality tool would. But it does seem to have a fair bit of power and I think it would settle down a bit once it is pressed to a panel. The variable speed dial works well and at 6/6 this thing is NOISY!
Now I haven't used the tool to do any polishing as of yet, I won't get a chance until next weekend. I just thought I'd put up a 'first impressions' thread and see if anyone else had come across one of these before?
rops:
