Thinking about purchasing the PE8

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oboroballa03

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I have got me a flex 3401 and love it it does a great job and the forced rotation is the best part. I use my meguiars g110v2 with 3 inch pads for smaller areas now but i was thinking about getting the PE8 for smaller areas, pillars and headlights. I hear it is safe if you are careful but i have no rotary experience. Just wondering about holograms and burning edges and so on like it is with big rotaries. Some people say they arent safe for headlights because it could melt it but i would say if you have common sense and a some experience buffing it should be ok on lower speeds?
 
Safe and careful are entirely subjective when it come to this tool. This machine is a wolf in sheeps clothes. I've used mine once in the last year. I prefer my Rupes Mini as it's mindless and you can't hurt anything with it. The PE8 has A LOT of torque/power. It definitely has a learning curve. Lower speeds are subjective on this machine too. At speed 3 which is halfway it still needs to be babied. Anything above that watch out. Keep this in mind too, it's a medium compact tool but it is still heavy. When you see it and then you pick it up you know you have a beast in your hands. It's a great tool, but just not for me.
 
would getting the rupes mini be a good upgrade from the meguiars g110v2? It just seems like its lacks some power but havent used a whole lot of buffers so maybe its just me. In my experiences it stalls out quiet a bit and i know all das will it just seems like it needs more power to me. So i am in the market for something better for smaller areas and i have mixed emotions about the PE8 so maybe the rupes mini is the one i need. Also thought about the Rupes ibrid nano long neck but will have to wait for it but not in any hurry.
 
You could just get 3" or 3.5" backing plate for your current tool and play around with that for a while to get used to the smaller pads. With extensions the PE will get into areas that the Mini can't but that's such a small thing to me. The PE8 is atool you have to give 100% of your attention to 100% of the time. Failure to do so can result in seroius issues. Not so with the Mini.
 
•I went with the following
PE8 Kit and accessories...
-No regrets; none, whatsoever!

IMG_15562.JPG


•Oh, and by all means...
get a couple of these pads:
3.5 inch DuroWool 100% Twisted Wool Cutting Pad, 2 Pack



Bob
 
I have some 3 inch pads and have used it but sometimes you need smaller and you cant really walk the da on its side without stalling like i can my flex 3401 . Thats why i was looking at the PE8 starter bundle with the 1 2 and 3 inch pads. When i went to look at the mini i also looked at the long neck ibrid and autogeek just has so many options to choose from errgg lol. The rotary and da in one plus battery powered seems awesome. The price is just a lil steeper than i wanted to spend right now but it can wait. I am just confused with all the different options out there thats why i reach out to people on here because i have no clue what i want.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by walk your 3401 on it's side?
 
I love my PE-8. I also bought the large starter kit with the different sized pads. For normal correcting, you won't need anything over speed 2 (speed 3 at most). Speed 2 is plenty for headlights and paint.
 
I mean by tilting the pad towards one side so only maybe 1/3 of it is making contact for example around door handles. Sorry i dont know proper terms or anything but i cant do that with my meguiars da because it stalls every time. I watched a video that Mike Phillips made at sema and he said with the cutting pad you will get slight holograms because it is a rotary but you can finish over it with a da and get rid of them. That just seems like wasted time and step if you had a rupes ibrid you could get to it with the da head and not worry about holograms or am i wrong. Although its a steeper price it seems quiet a bit more versatile and could save time by only having to do a section once. I just didnt know if you was careful with the PE8 that you could avoid holograms or not.
 
All da polishers are meant to be pad flat . If u can't fit The correct thing to do is get a smaller pad .
 
I recently bought a PE-8. It's not a bad tool for some of the surgical work but like custmspty mentions you need to be careful. It seems like you don't need to go past speed 1 to get the correction you need.
 
runrun411 said:
I recently bought a PE-8. It's not a bad tool for some of the surgical work but like custmspty mentions you need to be careful. It seems like you don't need to go past speed 1 to get the correction you need.
Click to expand...

Exactly, so why have all that additional power and RPM when it basically will rip paint apart and melt headlights in the blink on an eye :doh:
 
I definitely get what you guys are saying maybe if they had it with lower rpm ranges it would be a better choice. I think i might wait and get the long neck ibrid. The more i read and watch about it it seems like a great tool for small areas with plenty of power.
 
the two things that have held me back from purchasing a PE8 is not having a trigger and slow rpm start range. one of these days, you never know...
 
I just purchased the PE8 kit, and although I am new to rotary polisher, I really like this unit.
Really like the versatility of 1,2,3 inch pads.
And yes, I am getting holograms which I am to correct for the most part using the black pad and some finishing polish.
 
Love the PE8 with the exception of the awkward switch.
 
Regarding the speed of the PE8, it should be noted that speed 1 is 1300 RPM. While that may seem high, the pads are small. So a 1300 RPM speed with a 3" has a speed at the edge of the pad equivalent to a 6" pad at 650 RPM. The equivalent pad edge speeds are much lower with 2" and 1" pads. With the power of the PE8, as somebody else pointed out, there is NO reason to go to speeds higher than 2.

I am using pad edge speeds as a yardstick because that is where the highest amount of friction will be generated, and friction is what is makes heat.
 
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