Pat vs The Rotary

Pats300zx

Pats300zx

Super Moderator
Well today after approximately 1.5 years I have had sometime to mess with my Harbor Freight rotary. I am down at the shore all week and today not being the best beach day here in the East was a perfect day to try out the rotary. The weather is kind of overcas. I knew that I would have some time this week so I brought all of my stuff down to mess around.



My weapons of choice:



Harbor Freight rotary

Sonus DAS Green pad

Sonus SFX White pad

Optimum polish

Optimum compound



Test vehicle:



Black Jeep Grand Cherokee (not the best car to start on but it beats having to use your own if you screw up) :)



I basically kept the rotary at speeds around 1500 with OC and around 1000 with the OP.



My observations:



1. Clearcoat didn't immediately fly off of the finish like I thought it would :)



2. The rotary is a great tool and I see why you guys love it. I also see how if you aren't careful in what you are doing that it can turn to diaster quickly (especially with plastic panels). I don't know if I would ever use one on something like a plastic panel.



2. I was pretty product of myself. I had no buffer hop and only had some limited splatter when I was picking up a bead of polish that I put down on the panels. I kept the rotary moving at all times and did overlapping passes. I did notice that the polishes would dry up alot faster than on a PC or UDM. I was able to remove TONS of swirls after inspection with my Brinkman.



3. I am still a few light years away from trying this on a clients car but I feel with continued practice that I will be able to match the perfection of some of the Autopian masters (Young Jedi voice) :woohoo:



Any tips that you guys want to contribute please feel free :2thumbs:
 
:showpics



I have never gotten to use that smiley. Yeah, a rotary is super easy to learn to use, but super hard to perfect. I am still not great with it, but am comfortable enough to use it on customers cars. I actually have not even touched my PC since getting my Makita.
 
Another thing I was worried about was buffing near an edge (like hood or door edge). I would love some more info on how your handle this.
 
Congrats Pat. I love using the rotary. I think people make it out to be scarier than it is. I'm glad you had a good experience with it. To everyone who is on the fence about it...Ya gotta try it sometime or you'll never know. Now, let's see some pics :D
 
Pats300zx said:
Another thing I was worried about was buffing near an edge (like hood or door edge). I would love some more info on how your handle this.
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If it's on a car that needs serious compounding, I tape them off. If it's just a light polish that I'm working, I remove the tape and lightly polish the edges using less pressure and faster passes. A very small border area doesn't get corrected doing this, but everything does get polished.
 
Pats300zx said:
Question for the pros. Do you guys mist your foam pads on each panel to keep from dry buffing?
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Never



Be sure the pad is lubricated with product before starting to polish just as you would with a PC. Start with a somewhat smaller area to work because you may notice that your pad is going dry on the first couple passes. This just means to put a bit more product on and go back to work.



In general, after half a panel or so, you'll have the pad lubricated with enough material to keep it from going dry. The other side of this: don't use too much so you sling or overload the pad.



:woot: for using the rotary...it's a great tool
 
you can either tape the edges or leave about an inch of buffer zone. I find the CCS pads are great for reducing hop and I always put the drop of polish directly on the pad.
 
Another question for you guys. What is the best product application method? A bead on a panel or on the pad then smearing it? I have tried both and seem to get more splatter by laying down a bead.
 
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