Had some extra time today so I thought I'd measure the amount of paint removed through "normal" or "light" polishing using my ETG. My plan was to polish three times (and come up with an average) with PO106FF with a rotary and a white propel, each time making 3 passes at 1,200 rpms. Decided to measure in Microns since it has more units; panel was repainted - readings measured from 165 to 170 microns. After polishing three complete times, I could detect no "significant" change in paint thickness. So I decided to polish 7 more times (10 times in total)...and even after this it was hard to "measure" the difference in film build; my best gestimate is that I removed about 2 microns after polishing 10 times, as my readings ranged from 162 to 169 after polishing...it was hard to come up with an exact change since the varience in film build varied so much (about 5 microns) relative to the amount of paint removed (very little). I was expecting more paint to come off...I was only removing about 1/4 of a micron per polishing step, leading me to believe I could perform a "light" polish on my paint many many times before removing too much paint (about 30 times before going through the equivalent of .3 mils). The test would have been more accurate hade I polished more times (like 30) to get a larger before and after descrepancy.
Next time I have "play time" I'll compare the cutting ability of some heavy compounds.
Next time I have "play time" I'll compare the cutting ability of some heavy compounds.
