Which Rotary do I buy

F

Focusedonsound

New member
I know I should be buying a "Quality" power tool but at this time not knowing how to use a rotary all that well and having now 2 test vehicals to practice on I would much rather spend a few bucks and learn and then buy a quality tool.

With that said.

Which is the "Right" rotary to be ordering from Harbor Freight? All of my pads are 7.5 lake and country pads and require a 6IN backing plate! where do I pick up the backing plate that will fit this thig.

Thanks for the help guys

Is the the one that I want?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=92623

Or is it this one?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90820
 
If you want quality you don't want to buy from harborfreight. I've bought many things from there. They are cheap yes, They will work for awile then break. Thats why they are cheap lol.

A dewalt dw849 rotary is what i use and i use it 6 days a week and have had no problems with it. Another good feature about it is the rpm range is adjustable from 1000-3000 unlike many others i have seen which only have a low and high speed. many other users here also use it.

A makita is also good quality but i have never used one.
 
True detailer ...I totally agree w/ you ... I even have had the opertunity to try Sean's (GSRstilez) Makita which is a very impressive tool!

At this time I just can not justify the price with the 5-10 details that I do each year! I think that once I learn how to use a rotary I will move up to a Makita or a Dewalt!
 
I have the first one. It is a decent machine that produces the desired results. I used in for 3 full details w/o any problems. The only difference b/w the makita, which I have now, and the CE rotary is noise and trigger operation.

The CE rotary is quite a bit louder than the Makita, and the trigger and start-up is not nearly as smooth. The Makita gently reaches the desired speed, however the CE rotary gets-up to speed quickly and w/o hesitation.

JJ
 
I don't know for sure since I don't have a CE rotary, but sometimes it's just a matter of swapping out the bearings for something of higher quality to improve the smoothness and reduce the noise. For instance, if this product uses large noisy ball bearings, then a bearing house may be able to hook you up with needle bearing replacements that are quieter, smoother, less friction, etc. While there's plenty of lower quality items at HF, there's also plenty of items made by the same companies who sell under name brands at much greater prices. For instance, some (not all) of the welding hoods sold by HF are made by the same people who make the welding hoods for Miller, but the Miller hoods sell for ~5X the price of the HF hood. There was a drill press sold by HF that was sold at Sears under the Craftsman name for 2X the HF price and they were both made by the same company. Snap-On tools sells their 10 piece torque stick set for $289 and HF sells the 'exact' same product made by the 'exact' same company for $99 and you can often find them on sale at HF for $59.99! If you know what to look for, you can get some high quality products at screaming deals through HF. Also, HF sells does certain name brand items such as Makita, DeWalt, SK, Campbell Hausfeld, etc, if you want to buy a brand name item, but you'll have to keep an eye on their prices because they're not always priced at a deal.
 
qadsan said:
I don't know for sure since I don't have a CE rotary, but sometimes it's just a matter of swapping out the bearings for something of higher quality to improve the smoothness and reduce the noise. For instance, if this product uses large noisy ball bearings, then a bearing house may be able to hook you up with needle bearing replacements that are quieter, smoother, less friction, etc. While there's plenty of lower quality items at HF, there's also plenty of items made by the same companies who sell under name brands at much greater prices. For instance, some (not all) of the welding hoods sold by HF are made by the same people who make the welding hoods for Miller, but the Miller hoods sell for ~5X the price of the HF hood. There was a drill press sold by HF that was sold at Sears under the Craftsman name for 2X the HF price and they were both made by the same company. Snap-On tools sells their 10 piece torque stick set for $289 and HF sells the 'exact' same product made by the 'exact' same company for $99 and you can often find them on sale at HF for $59.99! If you know what to look for, you can get some high quality products at screaming deals through HF. Also, HF sells does certain name brand items such as Makita, DeWalt, SK, Campbell Hausfeld, etc, if you want to buy a brand name item, but you'll have to keep an eye on their prices because they're not always priced at a deal.
Click to expand...


Do you have PROOF of what your saying here? I'm not calling you a liar, i know that some companies will sell tool under different names. But i highly doubt that the craftsman and snap on tools sell at harbor freight under different names.
 
I mostly buy Pneumatic tools at Harbor freight because I can get the tool at 25% of what I would pay for a high quality unit. If I find that I don't use the tool a lot then I don't upgrade to a high quality unit. If I use it a lot (Impact Wrench) then I'll get a good one (Craftsman). I wouldn't make a large purchse there. An air compressor for instance is too large an investment to make there.

As for the Rotary, I have the Makita and can say with great comfort that I do not regret my purchase. I don't do a lot of full details but I know that the work I do is of the highest quality, machine-wise. I also know that it will give me years of problem-free usage.
 
TrueDetailer said:
Do you have PROOF of what your saying here? I'm not calling you a liar, i know that some companies will sell tool under different names. But i highly doubt that the craftsman and snap on tools sell at harbor freight under different names.
Click to expand...
First off, Craftsman is a brand name used by Sears and neither Sears nor Craftsman makes tools. Snap-On is another brand name and they also source from various places as do many companies.

There’s nothing for me to prove here. Anybody can prove these things to themselves by doing their own leg work. Here's some examples from mentioned above. While the molded injection case for the torque stick product may look a little different between the pictures, the product inside is made by the same company (Genius Professional Tools) and this same product is OEM’d to various companies such as….

Snap-On $290
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item...&group_ID=1649&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog

TorqueStick.com $139
http://www.torquestick.com/cart/cat...STER_KIT_1_2_DRIVE_TORQUE_EXTENSION_BARS.html

OEM Proam Tools $180
http://oemproamtools.com/auto/to410.htm

HF $89 / $59
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=42478

Another example is Snap-On's re-threading kits. Snap-On does not make this product and neither does Matco or some of the other companies advertising these products as their own. The Snap-On rethreading products are made by Jawco, but packaged as Snap-On, who in turn sells them at Snap-On inflated prices to people who want the Snap-On brand name. In fact, Sears sells the Jawco product under the Craftsman label and it’s significantly cheaper than Snap-On. If I talk with a person who only buys Snap-On and told them what I paid for my rethreading kit, they’d tell me their Snap-On kit is far superior to my less expensive kit, but Jawco knows the truth because they make these products for Snap-On as well and Sears Craftsman, Matco, etc.

I may have some of the following mixed up because there have been changes over the years and things will continue to change as time goes on, but many of the Craftsman hand tools were formerly made by Stanley up until ~1994 and many are now made by Danaher Tool Group, who hires companies from Thailand and China to make some of their tools, although the Craftsman name has many different vendors under it, especially when considering power tools. The tool manufacturing subsidiary of Techtronics, Ltd produced and probably still produces cordless tools for both Sears under the Craftsman label and for Home Depot under the Ryobi brand name. Emerson Electric is yet another supplier who also makes various power tools under the Craftsman name. Many of the MatCo hand tools also come from Danaher Tool Group. Mac tools on the other hand were coming from National Hand Tools, which is owned by Stanley, and so is Husky, and Proto, but they’re made to different specifications and some are made at different plants under different direction. Kobalt tools used to be made by JH Williams, which is a completely separate division of Snap-On, but that doesn’t mean they were made to the same standards or quality as Snap-On. I believe Kobalt is now made by Danaher Tool Group. S&K is another brand you may have heard of and those tools come from Facom. Many of these tool companies also source specialized tools from other suppliers, so just because it has a brand name on it like Snap-On doesn’t mean it’s made by Snap-On.

When it comes to car / motorcycle parts (brake pads, rotors, cables, oil, etc), you have the same thing where the same part from the same manufacturer is sometimes sold under different brand names at a wide range of prices and it often pays to do a little research and shop around if you’re buying enough product.

Otos Protective Eyewear in Korea makes some of Miller’s welding hoods in addition to big brand names. Otos also supplies HF as well, but HF sells this product at a huge discount compared to Miller. http://www.otos.co.kr/

There’s no point in me going on and on as this is something people can figure out for themselves with enough detective work if they want to, but the one thing to keep in mind is that things are always changing and many places have multiple vendors supplying various products, so pick and choose wisely when you spend your cash because one product may be of high quality while the next product under the same brand name may be junk.
 
ok back to rotarys since you guys took this topic off topic a long ways.

I have a chicago buffer and have used it all year buffing boats. thats 3-4 days a week 8-12 hours a day. they may be louder then some other buffers but its still runnin. i dont know if they sell the model i have or not but of the 2 you have listed the first one looks the best because it has a trigger. the other one looks like it just has a slider on/off switch. the trigger is by far easyer to work with then the other.



now there are alot of companies that sell the same product under a diffrent name. i know chemical guys makes product and sells it to companies that resell them under their own name. and the same goes for tools, boats, cars (mercury and ford dang near the same thing) im guessing what qadsan said is true. i have no time to research it but from the looks of it. they look dang near the same just packaged with a diff label.
 
I got a CE as well and for my use I find it to be adequate.
There are a number of posts on the CE topic and people here have used it with out complaint, or atleast that they have'nt posted any that I saw.

I went with your first choice (similar, mine doesn't have the "D" handle).
I think it's a great way to get into using a rotary without haveing to spend alot of cash.

You can pick up a 6" backing plate at Premium Auto Care or Autogeek

Good Luck and have fun with it
"J"
 
I also like the looks of the first unit and have an older rotary sander that looks similar to this with the D handle and that style was comfortable for various types of work I've done in the past (auto body, construction / home improvement, etc), but most of my auto body stuff runs from air. When I go out to dinner, I often spend more than $29 between my wife and I and closer to $50 when our kids eat with us. Eating in one or two extra nights could afford somebody this product.

By no means am I saying this is the same as Makita simply because they look the same, but at $29 you're not losing much if it doesn't work out. You could simply eBay it for $15 and you'd only be out $15 if it didn't work out. HF sells a 2 year replacement plan on this for $9.99 and they'll replace your unit with the same or more expensive model if it fails within that 2 years, so for ~$40 you'll get 2 years of guaranteed service from this tool if this is the tool you like.

Makita's 9227 CX3 7" polisher with a Makita tool bag can be had for ~$165 delivered if you look around and while it may look similar to the HF unit, it will likely have upgraded bearings, more advanced electronics (PWM soft start, electronic speed contol, etc), and it may have an entirely different motor, etc. It's also possible it may share 'some' of the same or similar parts in terms of design and or quality. Sometimes less expensive tools can easily be upgraded with different bearings or modified elecronics, but I don't know about this HF unit. If you're in the business of detailing cars for a living, then the Makita or DeWalt makes good sense as it will be a better unit, but for the home user who wants to polish their cars or the person whose getting started, then maybe the HF unit is worth a work.
 
go with the $29.00 one. it is cheaper if it breaks and the rpm range is more also. most of the other stats look the same, go with that one.
 
maximv1 mentioned rpm range in the above post. This reminded me of one other negative aspect of this rotary. The machine bogs with added pressure. The machine works best at speed 5 or very close to max. At any other speed, the machine will bog. Like I said in my above post, the machine will get the job done so it's not a big deal for the hobbiest.

JJ
 
Just thought I would let you guys know I ended up going with the Makita. Might as well buy it right the first time!

Thanks for the help guys ... its much appreciated!
 
Might want to check out the Metabo....seems some who like the dewalt or Makita prefer this because it is lighter.
 
I was thinking of getting the Metabo but I just couldn't justify the extra $100. I suppose if I was running a shop it wouldn't be as much of a problem but $100 buys a lot of product.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top