My First Practice with a Rotary (Lots of Pics!)

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 02:06

Well, decided to try out the rotary polisher for the first time yesterday evening... Wasn't sure what to expect from it, wondering if it would be this fire breathing monster that was going to burn the paint as soon as look at it!!

:

: So, I watched the Machine Polishing DVD by Brazo, focussing down on the rotary technique side of things.

Then out with the door - this first practice is divided into three parts:

Part 1 - Basic Swirl Removal
For a first attempt, I deicded to have a look at removing basic light swilrs from my scrap door...

I decided to taclke this with Menzerna Final Finish (cerami-clear) using a Megs Yellow W8006 pad by the Makita. The aim was to see what swirls I could shift with a light polish and pad, and to see what finish I could get without cracking out the PC. So, applied the product to the pad, then swithced on at 600rpm and primed the pad up with small movements of the Makita. Then spread around the area at 600rpm. Up then to 1000rpm for a two or three passes before moving to 1200rpm to polish until the FF started to go clear. Buffed off residue with a mf towel, and here's the results: ~5um of paint removed.

Half and half...

Full after...

The light swirls had gone with ease, very quickly, and I was pleased with the finish achieved - no visible holograms that I could pick out reflecting away in the sunlight... So I was pretty happy with that. But... well, that wasn't really much of a challenge now, was it?!

: Lets try some proper swirls...!!

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 02:08

Part 2 - Steel Wool Test A
Some careless soul then decided it would be a good idea to try and remove some of the welded on gunk from the bodyshop with steel wool...

Wonder who that could have been?!!

: Anyway, the steel wool couldn't shift the wee spots on the panel (finger nail did) so excuse them in the following photographs, I'll get back to them!

Anyway, here's some swirls from the steel wool treatment:

And the damage highlighted under the Brinkmann Dual Xenon:

To remove this damage, I decided to go with Menzerna Intensive Polish (RD3.01, cerami-clear). Applied using a Meguiars Yellow W8006 pad. This door is off a Peugeot 307, so I suspected soft paint. Anyway, first hit with the IP - primed at 600rpm, spread at 600rpm, the polished at 1000rpm for a couple of passes then up to 1200 then 1500rpm to polish with only light pressure until it went clear. This made a big dent in the swilrs, but deeper ones remained so this was repeated. The results I though were pretty good after this, just finished off with Final Finish applied as above in Part 1, and he're the finished article (PC was not used at any point, the finish is purely from the rotary):

and a 1/2 and 1/2 shot...

And now, in only fairly dim light the finished result showing much more gloss and the damage of the steel wool still clear to see in even dim light:

A half and half shot in bright sunlight...

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 02:09

And now - a before, half and half, and after shot using the sunlight to highlight the severity of the swilrs inflicted (useful with a panel, you can tilt it to the desired angle!!

)

I was pretty pleased with the finished article and the results achieved from rotary alone - personally, I wouldn't bother getting the PC out to finish that panel, I though the finish was good from the rotary... but this is my first effort, so guys, comments are needed here on whether you'd have finished down with the PC.

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 02:10

Part 3 - Steel Wool Test B
Now, I wanted to try out a more aggressive Meguiars W7006 Burgandy pad and Menzerna Power Gloss, so some deep swilrs were needed!!

:

A friend of mine who also has a new rotary (Aote, using Autoglym pads) joined me at this stage too.

We masked off the door into half and hlaf, and Bryan tackled one side and I did the other... I'll let Bryan tell you how he got on with his side of the door, using an Aote rotary with Autoglym and then Meguiars pads...

On my half of the door, I went straight for Power Gloss using the W7006 Burgandy pad. Good spray of Last Touch on the pad, the apply the product. Pad was primed at 600rpm, then PG was spread. Then I went straight to 1200rpm with no pressure and made a few passes, then added a wee bit of pressure and up to 1500rpm for more passes until the PG started to go clear. Stopped, sprayed the pad with Last Touch and repeated some more passes at 1200, then 1500rpm. Then stopped when it went clear again, and buffed off the residue. The result after one hit of PG:

Big improvement, but some deeper scratches remained, so the above process was repeated - after two hits of PG:

Nearly there, only the very deep ones remained... I suppose I could have finished the panel at this point, but I wanted to give it some abuse :devil: So, a third pass, this time with added pressure and for fun knocked the speed up to 2000rpm (no I wouldn't do this for real on a car, was just playing herre!!

: ). The result - well the scratces had pretty much gone, the panel got hot (was radiating heat) and for the first time I saw holograms clearly uner the Brinkmann light:

Ooops!

: But no paint burning, and the holograms were easily fixed - a little bit of Final Finish:

Bingo!

Happy with that!

All in all, I am pretty pleased with my first ever effort on the rotary... I'll improve with practice, there's plenty of paint left on that door and when it runs out, I'll just get another and practice spraying on this door!

: More practice, then I'll start to be willing to crack the tool out on a car for real.

A couple of things I noticed: with the Power Gloss, I got far less micromarring with the Makita than I did with the PC, Makita breaking it all down more effectively? PG was definitely easier to use on the rotary I found. Also, I actually found control of the rotary to be easier than the PC - no vibration, and the device glides far more and doesn't kick or tug at all. It feels a very flowing tool to use.

Also had a shot of Bryan's Aote using the Autoglym pads, and I found this more difficult going. The Megs pads, IMO, knocked spots of the Autoglym ones as far as defct removal goes... Also found the Aote speed varied, even under no applied pressure which made it dmore difficult to predict and use. The Makita held a constant speed, and flowed much better as a result. Just my thoughts anyways. Bry tried out the Makita as well as the Aote so I'm sure he can comment on the differences he found too.

Next up, I will try out the Megs #80 and #80 combo by rotary and see what I get. The menzerna polishes seemed very easy to use. Watch this space! :thumb:

rsxgamer · 07-07-06, 02:21

nice write up. I didn't get test panels for my new Hitachi and basically just jumped right in on my Acura. I had tried a Makita at a Meg's class, so I wasn't totatlly afraid of it. I did learn one thing from you..making multiple passes. My patience hasn't allowed me to do this yet. When things don't come out the first time, I usually think "inadequate product." Thanks for the post. What machine were you using?

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 02:29

I was using a Makita 9227CB.

Found it a very nice tool to use.

rsxgamer · 07-07-06, 02:33

that seems to be one of the favs on this site. i have no regrets on my hitachi purchase.

merci · 07-07-06, 04:31

Congrats on your first outing with the rotary!

Did you keep the pad flat all throughout or did you tilt it slightly? Did you follow a figure of 8 or use a cross-hatch pattern while polishing?

I'm curious about how you prime a pad @ 600rpm. Could you describe this more thoroughly?

I'm also wondering why you spread the polish @ 600rpm instead of just spreading it with the rotary switched off.

So far, it's all been horizontal panels. Try some vertical ones to mix it up a bit.

Btw, how'd you determine how much paint was being removed?

Dave KG · 07-07-06, 05:03

Hi merci,

I aimed to keep the pad flat while I was workin, and was using a cross hatch pattern of side to side and up and down, following the "flow" of the machine... I actually found that if I didn't force it, the machine guided me in the desired direction if you know what I mean, in a forward and back motion.

To prime the pad at 600rpm, I was just putting the product on the pad as normal with hte machine off, then holding the mahine on the panel - switch on at 600rpm and move the machine only very slightly about the position it was in with no pressure and this was spreading the polish nicely into the pad, then it spread very evenly across the panel at 600rpm with fairly fast zero pressure passes. I also tried spreading with the machine off as well but found I got a bit more splatter this way. Also, I also tried adding a line of polish to the panel, titling the pad up to pick the polish up and then spreading across the area all at 600rpm and this worked well too.

The paint thicknesses were measured using a Paint Thickness Gauge, many reading were taken over a small area and an average taken then after polishing this was repeated and an average drop in thickness calculated.

Joshua312 · 07-07-06, 05:19

Very impressive results...I hate the time the PC is taking to correct some of the finishes I am getting, however I am still fearful of the rotary. Maybe I'll have to step up to a cyclo instead

Great job on the test panel, your pictures show off your results great!

ZaneO · 07-07-06, 05:34

That's a *very* thorough write-up. Thanks!

DSVWGLI · 07-23-06, 11:36

Thank you for that great review. I've been considering a rotary lately as the PC takes a long time on some correction jobs. I have to admit I'm a little scared to make the jump, I don't want burn an edge on someones car. Your review makes me think it might not be as scary after all. What about buffing near edges? How is that done? Maybe some long time rotary users can chime in on that one.