Which one would you choose and why

[imported_Kevin Brown]

I am VERY partial to the DeWalt.
I do not own the Flex, so I cannot give a fair opinion about it.

I have never liked a "soft start" feature, which the Makita has while the DeWalt does not.

This basically means that the machine rotates slowly initially prior to hitting the designated RPM.
With a soft start, throttling the trigger off and on for brief burst is a real hoot.

I am not sure if the Makita has a "thermal overload protection", but I never liked the "protection" my Hitachi featured.
As a matter of fact, it is the single best thing that I have ever had STOLEN from me!

The Makita is lighter at 6.6 pounds versus 8.25 pounds for the DeWalt.
The Makita is longer at 18.5 inches versus 17.3 inches for the DeWalt.
The Makita is rated 600-3,000 RPM versus 1,000 RPM for the DeWalt.

On paper I think the Makita gets the nod, but I own both.

The one I always reach for first? No contest here... the DeWalt.:drool5:

[PorscheGuy997]

I started out using a Makita and really like it. The weight and size make it very comfortable.

During the winter, I picked up a Fein rotary. It is a tad longer than a PC. The build quality is phenomenal and nicely balanced. The downfall is that it is a screamer and doesn`t have a trigger.

I got the chance to try a Flex rotary, too. While it is very nice, the build quality is not as good as the Fein (but the Fein is twice the price).


For compounding and severe defects, I prefer the Makita. Wool pads just don`t feel right on a small machine. The smaller rotaries are nice for tight areas, but they tend to be quite noisy.

[Old Pirate]

For your information we now have the Hitachi SP18VAH2 Circular Polisher for $199.95, it`s another one to think about........

[bigmikela]

For any of you that were interested I went with the Makita.


Thank you all for your help. Also I wanted to thank Angelo for his help and advice with this.

Mike

[imported_RaskyR1]

I am VERY partial to the DeWalt.
I do not own the Flex, so I cannot give a fair opinion about it.

I have never liked a "soft start" feature, which the Makita has while the DeWalt does not.

This basically means that the machine rotates slowly initially prior to hitting the designated RPM.
With a soft start, throttling the trigger off and on for brief burst is a real hoot.

I am not sure if the Makita has a "thermal overload protection", but I never liked the "protection" my Hitachi featured.
As a matter of fact, it is the single best thing that I have ever had STOLEN from me!

The Makita is lighter at 6.6 pounds versus 8.25 pounds for the DeWalt.
The Makita is longer at 18.5 inches versus 17.3 inches for the DeWalt.
The Makita is rated 600-3,000 RPM versus 1,000 RPM for the DeWalt.

On paper I think the Makita gets the nod, but I own both.

The one I always reach for first? No contest here... the DeWalt.:drool5:

I have both the Dewalt and Makita and think I like the Makita better now. I had always been a fan of the Dewalt and have been using them for years, but they are so much louder than the Makita and I do like the 600rpm over the 1000rpm.

I never liked the soft start feature either, but now it`s really growing on me now!

[Mustangous]

I had the same decision and i decided to go with the makita... I needed the extra power for the bigger pads, especially working on a boat. Also its really hard to find someone who didnt like it. So I ended up going with it to be safe, cant go wrong, better than my 35 year old black and decker...

But i also said hell with it and bought the flex 3401 to give it a try... I am a tool addict, so wanna see what its all about.. Spent way too much today at PAC...ut:

[bigmikela]

I had the same decision and i decided to go with the makita... I needed the extra power for the bigger pads, especially working on a boat. Also its really hard to find someone who didnt like it. So I ended up going with it to be safe, cant go wrong, better than my 35 year old black and decker...

But i also said hell with it and bought the flex 3401 to give it a try... I am a tool addict, so wanna see what its all about.. Spent way too much today at PAC...ut:

I am also a tool addict. :biggrin: Well actually I get hooked on everything I do. It all started when I was a kid collecting baseball cards. (Which I still have) I do have a lot of stuff but I am by no means a pack rack. I like everything neat and organized. PAC is like Toys R Us to me. It`s my birthday all the time. :happybday: HeHe. Anyways Mustangous I hope you enjoy all your new toys as well.

Mike

[Old Pirate]

We should call ourselves PAC R Us, for you all addicts of tools and polishes.........:thumbup:

[Nick Chapman]

I see you`ve already made your decision to buy the Makita, great choice! You really can`t go wrong with ANY of these machinces.

But, for anyone else that is wieghing this same decision, I`ll give my input. This comes from a full time detailer that uses a rotary practically everyday. I own the Dewalt, 3 Makita`s and the lightwieght Flex rotary.
Initally I bought the Makita because thats what everyone else was using. Works great, lightwieght, soft start, easy to use.
Next I bought the Dewalt just to give it a shot since thats what a lot of others were using. First impressions.....HEAVY! Aggressive! Great machine, but way to much for me. I used it for a while, then the speed dial broke, so I tucked it away a couple of years ago and haven`t touched it since. went back to the Makita, and actually bought a couple more over the years.
Flex lightwieght rotary, what can I say, lightwieght(just as the name says), about a pound lighter than the Makita. That really helps when you`re doing vertical panels! Small design, I have medium size hands, so this is another plus for me. Very efficient machine!

All in all, the Flex lightwieght machine is my favorite. I use it 99% of the time. The down side to this machine, as Todd pointed out, is it does tend to get warm. This really doesn`t bother me as I wear gloves when buffing(Mechanics Vert gloves, thin and comfortable). For this reason, I use my Makita when I have any heavy correction work to do. Basically, anytime I need to break out a wool pad, the Makita comes out of the bag. But beyond that, the LW Flex does ALL of my buffing, ploshing etc... It`s a GREAT machine!

Nick

[Old Pirate]

Has anyone try out a Festool Shinex Rotary?

[ZL1Mark]

Orbital Buffer or Rotary Polisher

There is a place for both a random orbital buffer and a high speed polisher in a detailer?s toolkit, once you are proficient with an orbital all that is required to ?step-up` to the polisher is practice, practice and then more practice, which should be done on a scrap vehicle panel as opposed to your own or someone else?s vehicle

Sometimes a dual-action polisher just isn?t enough for really tough scratches and swirls. You need the cutting power of a rotary polisher to penetrate the clear coat and smooth over rough edges to restore your paint to its original flawless finish.

On a scale 1/10

Porter-Cable - 7424XP
Safety - 9
Correcting time - 10
Correcting ability - 5
Learning curve -2

Flex - L3403 VRG
Safety - 8
Correcting time - 9
Correcting ability - 7
Learning curve - 5

Rotary - Metabo PE-125
Safety - 3
Correcting time - 5
Correcting ability - 9
Learning curve - 8

Like all tools there is a learning curve with it, so first gain experience on a paint surface that doesn?t matter i.e. a scrap panel, practice until you feel confident enough in its use and capabilities to use it on your own vehicle.

An extract from one of a series of in-depth, unbiased detailing articles ? TOGWT ? Ltd Copyright 2002-2009, all rights reserved.

How can the Flex be almost as safe as the PCXP, yet the Metabo is a lot less safe?

Can you explain what you mean by correcting time? How could one have a worse correcting time, but better correcting ability? Unless I`m not understanding your scale?

[imported_evilwrx]

Makita - 600rpm speed for jeweling.

[imported_zoraduntov]

I was in the same boat a few days ago and got the Makita . I didn`t want to have a rotery that has limitations like the lightweight flex . I still might get the flex down the road.