Orbital buffing vs random orbit buffing??

[WS6Fury]

I read a thread on here where there was a simple comparison btw the two, the random orbit was supposed to create less damage to car paint, but was not as good as the orbital process in removing all swirl marks and any paint imperfections.

If the orbital was used improperly, you could screw up your paint.

What is the proper way to use an orbital buffer, and what is the proper way to use a random orbital.

I think on random, you hold the pad on a slight angle and do a sweeping motion over the car, like left right, up down types of motions???

[Aurora40]

You are thinking of orbital vs. rotary. Orbitals don't have to be random if the pad doesn't rotate freely, but I don't think they'd get the heat that a rotary does because of the offset rotation. However, a random orbital is random on it's own. It doesn't need you to move it in a random fashion.

A rotary can damage paint because it creates a lot of heat. You need to be careful.

Cvcaelen did a write-up of a nice orbital tool he had from Makita. It could be switched between random orbit and a locked orbit. Check it out if you need further explanation.

[cvcaelen]

This is the thread Aurora is refering to:
BO6040-review part2

The Makita has random orbital
and random orbital with forced rotation.

Christiaan