Rupes Mille vs 3401 - UPDATED Thoughts

JustJesus said:
Indeed. Todd did suggest yellow or UHS for finishing. Blue and green combos for more cut. White wasn't mentioned for OEM Soft.

Could be personal preference for Dylan.
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I've not had great luck with the green pads and longevity on the Mille. Two bit the dust so I've added several more and will see if changing them out on every panel or 2 per hood, etc. just way more often helps. I think the build up of heat and softening of them combined with torque is hard on the thicker size foam that clearly isn't as durable as a Lake Country Hybrid Force type pad.

I've had a couple UHS Pad bite it too. Here's what they end up looking like. Maybe a bit harder to see here in pics as they look worse in person. The older pads seem to be more ragged around the edges sort of like I was clipping emblems or sharp objects but I have not. The foam pores also seem stretched and deformed a bit.

Green Pad New - tight and very uniform:

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Green Pad Older - ragged and pores are deformed....more visible here on the left side

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UHS New - uniform and more consistent

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UHS Pad Older - again, ragged around edges and loss of density

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Which of the LC purple wool pads are you useing? The thicker one or the thin one? And have you tried them on the mille too?

As I have understand it it's important to prime the green rupes pad as they recommend. Don't know the exact way to do it but it's you are running the pad on the same spot for a while before you start to polish. Could be the same with the UHS pad too. The green rupes pad is known for start to degrade very fast. Don't know if the prime is getting you a big difference to the longevity of the pad though.

Have you tried the Mille with any other of the thin pads that are out there?
 
Rsurfer said:
How does the Millie pads hold up?
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So far the yellow and white pads are holding up fine but honestly I've used the UHS ones the most as that system has worked pretty well. I didn't see any noticable difference in how the green pads performed or finished out vs the UHS so i started using both.


SWETM said:
Which of the LC purple wool pads are you useing? The thicker one or the thin one? And have you tried them on the mille too?
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I use the Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool Pad and then also their blue wool ones. I use the purple wool ones on the flex mainly because I use 6" pads and the appropriate backing plate on the Flex. On the Mille I run 5" ones and a smaller backing plate. The blue wool ones I run on the Mille as they are sized for my set up and backing plate.

As I have understand it it's important to prime the green rupes pad as they recommend. Don't know the exact way to do it but it's you are running the pad on the same spot for a while before you start to polish. Could be the same with the UHS pad too. The green rupes pad is known for start to degrade very fast. Don't know if the prime is getting you a big difference to the longevity of the pad though.
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I'll review it again, although I do tend to follow that process with them.

Have you tried the Mille with any other of the thin pads that are out there?
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No.
 
Ohh I saw that the LC purple foam wool pad was with 6". And the thin ones is 5" and 3 1/2" only. Would be very interesting to see how the thin one does on the Mille. I see more here in Sweden uses those short haired wool pads and those has a foam interface. The LC technology to get the wool attached is a cool way of doing it. And would like to try them out.

Lake Country Thin Foamed Wool Pads

Thanks for shareing your experience with the Mille and answers all the questions we have! It stands between the Mille and the LH19E rotary polisher which I will get next.

/Tony
 
SWETM said:
Ohh I saw that the LC purple foam wool pad was with 6". And the thin ones is 5" and 3 1/2" only. Would be very interesting to see how the thin one does on the Mille. I see more here in Sweden uses those short haired wool pads and those has a foam interface. The LC technology to get the wool attached is a cool way of doing it. And would like to try them out.
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The ones I use both purple and blue area awesome. My go-to cutting pad for bad paint. Combined with ClearCut and 3 passes can fully correct bad paint and honestly they finish out great. Just a very light if that haze that there too, just 2-3 passes with a polishing pad on the Mille and perfection is achieved. Huge time saver.

Lake Country Thin Foamed Wool Pads
Thanks for shareing your experience with the Mille and answers all the questions we have! It stands between the Mille and the LH19E rotary polisher which I will get next.

Tony
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Happy to pay-forward all the community here has provided me.
 
Anyone else have experience with the Millie?
 
TTQ B4U said:
Have used my Mille on a number of details since starting this thread. Brief thought
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:) that wasn't all that bried....and I thank you for that!!


TTQ B4U said:
I'm sure there's more but it's late and I'm tired. Hope the above helps.
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Helps a ton. Thanks for the additional sharing.


TTQ B4U said:
I've had a couple UHS Pad bite it too. Here's what they end up looking like. Maybe a bit harder to see here in pics
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Not at all. Very clear to see. I haven't had that happen too much myself, but i've seen it a few times.
 
Rsurfer said:
Compared to the 3401, now that the Millie has been out for awhile.
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Been using the Mille for a year now and have two 3401’s for 3-4 years so am quite well versed with both.
In short the Mille is:
Quieter
Smoother
Corrects faster
Runs much cooler
Looks better
 
Ronin47 said:
Been using the Mille for a year now and have two 3401’s for 3-4 years so am quite well versed with both.
In short the Mille is:
Quieter
Smoother
Corrects faster
Runs much cooler
Looks better
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I trust your assessment of the Millie, but wanted to hear from other members.
 
Rsurfer said:
Anyone else have experience with the Millie?
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I owned the Flex 3401 for about 10 years. I bought the Mille as an impulse purchase and did 2.5 cars with it.

I detail as a hobby so nowhere near the amount of experience of some of these guys doing multiple cars a week.

The only real benefit I felt the Mille brought to the table was that after using it there was less vibration in my arms afterward. I also like the standard 5" & 6" backing plates too. All pad types fit properly unlike the odd size of the flex backing plate (assuming you buy something other than the older LC Hybrid force pads).

I like the ergonomics of the 3401 better. I like the thicker lake country force pads better than the Rupes Mille thin pads. Yes you can use them on the Mille, but I didn't care for the taller height of the machine when doing so. I also think the 3401 (the one I had) was a better built machine.

If someone owns a 3401 I wouldn't recommend replacing it for the Mille. If you own neither and only want one tool it'd be a tough decision. Maybe you'd like the Mille. Maybe you'd like the 3401.

I've since bought 8mm (3" & 5" plates), 15mm (5"), & 21mm (5") DA polishers which is why I decided to sell both my forced rotation DAs (and pocketed money in the process). If I need something more aggressive than the DAs I can always throw a wool pad on the PE14 (or old school heavy Makita rotary).
 
dwaleke said:
I owned the Flex 3401 for about 10 years. I bought the Mille as an impulse purchase and did 2.5 cars with it.

I detail as a hobby so nowhere near the amount of experience of some of these guys doing multiple cars a week.

The only real benefit I felt the Mille brought to the table was that after using it there was less vibration in my arms afterward. I also like the standard 5" & 6" backing plates too. All pad types fit properly unlike the odd size of the flex backing plate (assuming you buy something other than the older LC Hybrid force pads).

I like the ergonomics of the 3401 better. I like the thicker lake country force pads better than the Rupes Mille thin pads. Yes you can use them on the Mille, but I didn't care for the taller height of the machine when doing so. I also think the 3401 (the one I had) was a better built machine.

If someone owns a 3401 I wouldn't recommend replacing it for the Mille. If you own neither and only want one tool it'd be a tough decision. Maybe you'd like the Mille. Maybe you'd like the 3401.

I've since bought 8mm (3" & 5" plates), 15mm (5"), & 21mm (5") DA polishers which is why I decided to sell both my forced rotation DAs (and pocketed money in the process). If I need something more aggressive than the DAs I can always throw a wool pad on the PE14 (or old school heavy Makita rotary).
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What brand long throw did you get?
 
I don't think I can discuss it here since it's not sold @ Autogeek.

They are very similar to the Griot's Garage BOSS polishers.
 
Reached for my 3401 yesterday. Wow, I hate that machine. Even with the pad flat, it requires a lot of energy to polish with, especially on vertical panels.
 
If you guys are using a Mille, you owe it to yourself to get some B&S Low Pro pads. I've tried so many different combinations on the tool and this is the one that works the best, for me anyway.
 
Tarheelplayr5 said:
If you guys are using a Mille, you owe it to yourself to get some B&S Low Pro pads. I've tried so many different combinations on the tool and this is the one that works the best, for me anyway.
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If mine goes through any more Rupes pads I certainly will as I am not about to continue spending money on items that don't hold up.

I've had my hexlogic and hybrid force pads for a long while and they hardly show any signs of wear after lots of hours on my 3401.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8 using Tapatalk
 
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