chicago rotary

ACURA95 · 06-30-04, 06:47

After experimenting with my PC, I realized I will not be able to remove all the marring and cobwebs with it. It did work well however but I guess my paints condition needs something stronger.

Anyways I went over to my friends body/paint shop and he showed me what a little 3m and a rotary can do. Less then a minute later half of my left corner panel was swirl free. Afterwards, I went over to harbor frieght and picked up the chicago rotary.

I read a couple of posts about it and any advice on experience with it will be appreciated. I know its the poor mans rotary but I think it will still do the job.

Heres the link if your not familiar with the machine

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46507

ZJ JIM 96 · 06-30-04, 09:14

It does the job fine, and should be all you need for personal use. Get good pads. I use the Lake Country yellow "finger" pad for cutting and their white pads for polishing. I don't use the rotary for applying LSPs, so I can't comment on that.

Also remember that with the Chicago Electric rotary, you need to turn it off before changing the speed setting. I don't know what would happen if you tried to change while it was running, like you can do on the PC.

ACURA95 · 06-30-04, 09:21

jim,
I tried changing the speeds while it was running and it wasnt a problem. I didnt read the instructions yet being that I just got it yesterday. I was wondering what backing pad are you using? The 7" it came with?

To be honest, Im really not worried about damaging it because I purchased an extended a two year warranty for $10.00 and Its just down the street if I want to exchange it. I cant believe the warrenty was half the price of the buffer. not sure if its worth it or not. I hate warranties. When I have them I never use them and when I need them there not there. lol

Any advice on how to use it?

Mr. Clean 2K · 06-30-04, 10:01

I have iut.. Used it and it removed what I needed...

ZJ JIM 96 · 06-30-04, 10:58

Yeah. I use the 7 inch velcro backing plate that came with it, along with the largest sized LC pads. The web lists them as 8.5 inch pads, but I think the largest I've found are the 7.5--but they fit fine.

The best price I've found online is Smart Shoppers. Luckily, they are located here in Louisville, so I just drive over and get the price directly (+15% and sales tax) rather than having to meet the $50 minimum online order requirement.

There are several posts with a lot of information on rotary usage. I found that all the advice I found applied to the use of the Chicago Rotary.

Here are the posts with the most thorough discussions.

Rotary Usage
http://www.detailcity.com/forums/sho...&threadid=4223

Anthony Orosco is the most thorough "web tutor" I've found on the subject. However, even he warns that it's best to have in-person tutelage.

Hope that helps.

--Jim

ACURA95 · 06-30-04, 11:06

Jim,
Thanks for all your help. My friend that paints for a 5 star body shop is going to give me lessons on Saturday when we detail my car. He has been Painting and detailing for about 15 years and seems to really know what hes doing. He said hell grab some pads from the body shop for me but I think their wool. Im not sure about that but I guess he knows what hes doing.

I ll definitely check out the threads to get a head start.

Thanks again

~Mike~