Sneak Peek! - New Polisher!

Paul A. said:
OMG! I have just soiled my scivvies thinking of a cordless Flex! 2 batteries...one charged and in the charger and the fully charged first one in the machine that can go a good 4-6 hours...

Just imagining no cord to mess with BUT the ability to get about 8 hours of cordless machine time would be absolute nirvana!

Nevertheless, I am anxiously awaiting Mike's announcement, whatever it is.
Click to expand...

I'm dying to see who's first to crack the full size cordless DA. Milwaukee's got their M18 fuel 7" rotary that claims it "can complete a full size car on one charge when working on moderate to good paint". Given that description, even if a DA pulls more power than a rotary, you'd think that as long as they use good cells and a good brushless motor that a full correction could be do-able with 2 batteries.
 
The new Makita for sure. You can see the two "bumps" along the top profile that perfectly match the contours of the Makita in other photos.
 
I hope it's the PO5000.

But here's the thing. If they'e made the forced rotation with elliptical movement the same as the rotary, people who already run a rotary will able to pick it up and kill swirls and do light/medium correction with no learning curve at all. The other Makita, the BO6040, because it spins backward, isn't immediately comfortable, this would be. Also, this will be a safer machine to run than a full on rotary but the action will be close enough to create a learning bridge between a random orbital and a rotary. It will - END THE CONVERSATION.

On the other hand, if it spins the wrong direction - like it does in the video and the same as the BO6040 - then the conversation will be - why? Who did it? What testers let it get through? What the hell were they all thinking?

If it spins the right direction - here's my credit card number **************.

RSW
 
ugafiredawg said:
The new Makita for sure. You can see the two "bumps" along the top profile that perfectly match the contours of the Makita in other photos.
Click to expand...

think so? To me that looks clearly like the updated 3401. I hope you're right though
 
RSW said:
If it spins the right direction - here's my credit card number **************.

RSW
Click to expand...

What is the "right direction"? I just detailed a car that was worth over $2M dollars, and the darn steering wheel was on the wrong side ; )
 
I use both a PC and a (what may soon be a older model) Flex 3401. They turn in opposite directions. I don't know that either direction is "right". Both seem to be working just as expected, and properly. I jump back and forth quite a bit between them, and have never noticed an issue with the direction of orbit/rotation. I'm also pretty sure the abrasives work in both directions, too, from the results.Who's to say that the PC turns in the "right" direction, and the 3401 doesn't? There are enough 3401s out there, and for a long enough period of time, to pretty much conclude that the direction of its spin doesn't create an issue for its users.

As for the testers, they probably just figured that the polisher worked properly, cut as per the design, held up, and didn't overheat or draw any current greater than what was on the label, was safe.
 
Could be anything in there, it could be a bowling alley.
 
I doubt it but I hope someone comes out with a cordless version.I hate cords.
 
kkritsilas said:
I use both a PC and a (what may soon be a older model) Flex 3401. They turn in opposite directions. I don't know that either direction is "right". Both seem to be working just as expected, and properly. I jump back and forth quite a bit between them, and have never noticed an issue with the direction of orbit/rotation. I'm also pretty sure the abrasives work in both directions, too, from the results.Who's to say that the PC turns in the "right" direction, and the 3401 doesn't? There are enough 3401s out there, and for a long enough period of time, to pretty much conclude that the direction of its spin doesn't create an issue for its users.

As for the testers, they probably just figured that the polisher worked properly, cut as per the design, held up, and didn't overheat or draw any current greater than what was on the label, was safe.
Click to expand...

Like I said in my post, if the PO5000C spins the same direction as rotary it will have the same basic feel as a rotary but without being as aggressive/dangerous. So, a person could learn to run a random orbital - any machine with a free floating backing plate - then, move to the orbit with forced rotation machine, then onto the rotary.

On a random orbital, the movement is pretty much the same everywhere - it just goes in an orbit. The backing plates and pads spin on random orbitals but the amount of energy in that spin isn't enough to make it significantly important as far as how the pad interfaces with the paint. You can see how much energy there is by attaching a string to the edge, hold the string and run the machine. The pull on the string is the amount of energy in the spin. Or, you could just run the machine and weight the pad against the surface differently. You'll see it doesn't matter much.

On the forced rotation with orbit machines, you have real spin, that is, spin that can't be stopped and makes a real difference. So, I weight the pad against the paint differently. Because most of these machines spin counter clockwise, I weight the pad with a bias toward the left side, so the machine tends to pull away from me. The exception is the Makita BO6050 which spins clockwise. All rotary machines run clockwise, so I weight the pad with a bias toward the right. That's not exactly right, as I move side to side the bias tends to move around the pad depending on how I want the pad to touch the paint but I almost always have the pad moving against the paint so that the pressure goes from less to more in the same direction as the spin. The angle isn't much, but it's significant.

If the PO5000C spins the same direction as the rotary, people will be able to get comfortable with the way it feels to use a rotary - which, IMHO, is one, but just one, of the things that distinguishes one detailer from another.

I know it's possible to be a really good detailer without using a rotary polisher but honestly, like Don at Bill DeCarr's shop said to me in about 1982, "You're pretty good, but you'd be a lot better if you learned to run a buffer."



RSW
 
The Flex XCE is considered overdue by many here. I'm hoping it's finally here. But a 12mm forced rotation machine from Flex would be cool as well. As the tv networks say,stay tuned for the next episode. I know I am!
 
many years ago on the original autopia.org forum, i remember bryan burnworth (peach state detail) and possibly one other person was/were testing out a polisher(s) with makita and i wonder if this is one it finally came to...
 
RSW said:
Like I said in my post, if the PO5000C spins the same direction as rotary it will have the same basic feel as a rotary but without being as aggressive/dangerous. So, a person could learn to run a random orbital - any machine with a free floating backing plate - then, move to the orbit with forced rotation machine, then onto the rotary.

On a random orbital, the movement is pretty much the same everywhere - it just goes in an orbit. The backing plates and pads spin on random orbitals but the amount of energy in that spin isn't enough to make it significantly important as far as how the pad interfaces with the paint. You can see how much energy there is by attaching a string to the edge, hold the string and run the machine. The pull on the string is the amount of energy in the spin. Or, you could just run the machine and weight the pad against the surface differently. You'll see it doesn't matter much.

On the forced rotation with orbit machines, you have real spin, that is, spin that can't be stopped and makes a real difference. So, I weight the pad against the paint differently. Because most of these machines spin counter clockwise, I weight the pad with a bias toward the left side, so the machine tends to pull away from me. The exception is the Makita BO6050 which spins clockwise. All rotary machines run clockwise, so I weight the pad with a bias toward the right. That's not exactly right, as I move side to side the bias tends to move around the pad depending on how I want the pad to touch the paint but I almost always have the pad moving against the paint so that the pressure goes from less to more in the same direction as the spin. The angle isn't much, but it's significant.

If the PO5000C spins the same direction as the rotary, people will be able to get comfortable with the way it feels to use a rotary - which, IMHO, is one, but just one, of the things that distinguishes one detailer from another.

I know it's possible to be a really good detailer without using a rotary polisher but honestly, like Don at Bill DeCarr's shop said to me in about 1982, "You're pretty good, but you'd be a lot better if you learned to run a buffer."



RSW
Click to expand...

I can see the point, but speaking as a non0professional (i.e. I don't get paid to detail), I have never used a rotarty buffer, and most likely never will. I started paint correction with the PC. Learning on the PC, I try to apply pressure directly the center of the pad, or I get stalling. I then moved to the Flex 3401. It rotates in the opposite direction, but as long as I apply the pressure to the center of the pad. Doing that, and using a 5.5" pad eliminates the "walking", which is something that I don't want; my ideal use entails keeping the pad as flat as possible, and the pressure centered so that I am not fighting the machine. So for me, and I would bet, for a lot of 3401 users, the counterclockwise spin isn't an issue. I also would like to re-iterate the point that there are many, very, very many, people who use the 3401, and there hasn't been a huge outcry regarding the counterclockwise rotation.

If you have learned to polish with a rotary polisher, I can see where you may have an issue, and perhaps for the pro detailers it is a concern. But for non-pros like me, who only learned on DAs, and moved onto the 3401, it isn't a consideration. I specifically stayed away from rotaries due to their reputation for burning paint, and only started machine polishing when the DAs started to come out. If I had somebody who could have shown me how to properly use a rotary polisher, I may have learned to use one, but there wasn't, so I waited until I felt I could use a machine polisher safely, which for me was with a PC.
 
kkritsilas,

I can run all the machines I've mentioned without any problems and I've been a pro since 1980. There are very good reasons for learning to use a rotary having to do with not just speed but over all quality. I really hope this new Makita will be the bridge for people between the random orbitals and the rotary. Otherwise, I'm sure it'll still be a great machine - just not as great as it could be.


RSW
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top