Sema 2023?

The new rupes 15mm and 21mm cordless polishers and lake country released the industries most powerful polisher with 3 different settings. Rotary, free spinning 8mm and 15mm throw, i can see them taking off in detailing shops. Probably the first tool i would buy if i opened a studio.

Unveiling Rupes' Game-Changing Cordless Polishers: Bigfoot HLR15 & HLR21 - YouTube

2 new rinseless one from labocosmetica and angelwax.

Carpro the titan released new diamond coatings too and a great skincare kit for leather which i will buy, the brush alone looks great.

Car detailing market sure is exciting in my opinion.

I just used the Rupes UNO advanced for instance. What a great polish for well maintained cars. I`m pretty sure i will get the new Rupes 15mm cordless next year. I assume it`s going to be at least $750USD before shipping and taxes. Expensive but i don`t care lol
 
Oh, sorry noorth, you are right, I guess I already have SEMA fatigue, the two new iBrids from Rupes was pretty big news; also, Optimum apparently introduced cordless versions of the Zentools, but there doesn`t seem to be any info about that yet. I think the new UDOS, however, is still perhaps "a solution looking for a problem" as Anthony Orosco put it in another thread. It does sound better than the original, not sure if they will continue making the original.
 
lol do you have any cordless polishers?

I didn`t know zentools had a cordless coming out. Thanks. I going to buy one of the better 15mm cordless tools. Rupes most likely.
 
Thanks guys. I`ve seen some great releases from meguiars too.

I was wondering if Mothers had released anything new?
 
noorth said:
lol do you have any cordless polishers?

I didn`t know zentools had a cordless coming out. Thanks. I going to buy one of the better 15mm cordless tools. Rupes most likely.
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I have a ton of polishers. If I was going to buy another it would definitely be cordless. That Rupes 15 sounds pretty enticing. I never went long-throw, I was pretty happy with things when I got my Flex 3401. I do have plenty of other cordless (non-detailing) tools.
 
Alfisti said:
Thanks guys. I`ve seen some great releases from meguiars too.
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I think for the first time since I`ve been on detailing forums (I started with MOL, then quickly came here) Meguiar`s didn`t do a teaser thread, and therefore there was very little activity on MOL regarding the new products. Unless there is just very little activity at MOL these days, kind of like here.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I have a ton of polishers. If I was going to buy another it would definitely be cordless. That Rupes 15 sounds pretty enticing. I never went long-throw, I was pretty happy with things when I got my Flex 3401. I do have plenty of other cordless (non-detailing) tools.
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I have never tried a forced rotation machine besides a mini rotary. If i was a pro i would have by now. It does seem the market in general is tilt a nice bit towards long throw polishers over the 3401 type machines.
 
Well, at the time the Flex came out, that was really the only way to get swirls out quickly besides a rotary. Things changed a bit when M105 came out, microfiber pads, and the long throw machines.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Well, at the time the Flex came out, that was really the only way to get swirls out quickly besides a rotary. Things changed a bit when M105 came out, microfiber pads, and the long throw machines.
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I have a G15 that can easily take out heavy defects in a few minutes. So yeah they correct just fine.

Its funny, 5 years ago everyone was saying you should start with a 8mm throw DA for a "beginner" lol I have never used one i bought the G15 as my first polisher. ZERO regrets.
 
It was 2007 I believe when the 3401 came out. There was really nothing else at the time, as I said, before long throw, before Meg`s came out with M105 and before smaller, thinner pads became the norm for PC-type machines, before MF cutting pads--those things enabled real correction with a PC. There was really no way but rotary before the 3401 came out to efficiently remove defects. The entire machine polishing world has changed since then with the advent of better machines, pads, and polishes. And BTW, the Flex was half the price it is now when it came out. People would complain that $150 was too much for a PC back then, and now we`re talking about 5 times that.
 
noorth said:
I have never tried a forced rotation machine besides a mini rotary. If i was a pro i would have by now. It does seem the market in general is tilt a nice bit towards long throw polishers over the 3401 type machines.
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I use a forced rotation machine, almost exclusively. I have Makitas. I started with the BO6040 and now have the BO6050. No regrets.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
It was 2007 I believe when the 3401 came out. There was really nothing else at the time, as I said, before long throw, before Meg`s came out with M105 and before smaller, thinner pads became the norm for PC-type machines, before MF cutting pads--those things enabled real correction with a PC. There was really no way but rotary before the 3401 came out to efficiently remove defects. The entire machine polishing world has changed since then with the advent of better machines, pads, and polishes. And BTW, the Flex was half the price it is now when it came out. People would complain that $150 was too much for a PC back then, and now we`re talking about 5 times that.
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The prices have indeed gone crazy as has the rhetoric that you need any particular machine to get results. It`s just more hype and BS to get hobbyists to open their pocket books.

As a pro, where time really is money, a slightly faster machine makes sense. As a DIY, it`s dumping more money into the dumpster. If you get excited about new machines and get enjoyment out of a new one, don`t let my words stop you. However you can get results by hand, any machine is going to be just fine. I`m really tempted by a cordless machine but realize it will just take up more room and I`ll still keep my corded trio.
 
Dan said:
The prices have indeed gone crazy as has the rhetoric that you need any particular machine to get results. It`s just more hype and BS to get hobbyists to open their pocket books.
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The introduction of the Flex and its adoption was certainly an inflection point in the polisher market, it showed that there was consumer appetite for a more expensive machine that could perform more efficiently than a converted DA sander, and caused Rupes to enter the American market--I`m not sure if Flex was here industrially before the 3401 was introduced to the detailing world. IIRC the GG6 in its early versions even still had the vacuum port for the sanding dust, and now GG has a full line of seemingly purpose-built polishers.
 
How do you conflate rupes entering the US market because of flex 3401?

I think your over thinking all this. :)

Cordless polishers are an inflection point too. Cordless tools are.
 
noorth said:
How do you conflate rupes entering the US market because of flex 3401?

I think your over thinking all this. :)
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Because that`s the way I remember it. How long have you been here? I`ve been here since 2004. At the time I joined, there were 3 tools, a rotary (several different popular mfrs), a Porter Cable DA, which was a converted sander, and the Cyclo, which was a WWII-era aluminum polisher. Almost no one used a Cyclo, the "professionals" used a rotary, and everyone else bought a "PC". And at the time, before the advent of "SMAT" polishes, smaller/thinner foam pads, and microfiber pads, it was almost impossible to correct paint efficiently in the way we do today, except with a rotary. Everyone was scared of a rotary. There was an attempt sell other hopefully more powerful sanders to compete with the "PC"; that started with David B. and the ACC Ultimate Detail Machine, or UDM, which failed and then Meguiar`s began importing that machine under their label, I forget what they called that, there were all kinds of problems with it. Then Griot`s introduced the GG6, another converted sander, and I think after 3D bought ACC, they also flirted with another converted sander, that they were bringing in from China and modifying in CA.

Along the way Meguiar`s came out with M105, their consultant Kevin Brown developed the "Kevin Brown Method" (KBM) to get results from it, and all of a sudden people were able to remove defects without a rotary! Based on Kevin`s methods, it was realized that part of the problem with PC`s was that the pads were basically designed for the rotary, and that a PC needed smaller, thinner, pads that would absorb less of the machine`s (limited) power. I think Kevin was also involved with the development of the Meguiar`s microfiber polishing system which was the first on the market, paired with SMAT abrasives.

But none of that fundamentally changed the machines, we were still using converted DA sanders, that were in a $150-180 price range. Again, I don`t know if Flex was already in the US market with other power tools at the time they started selling the 3401 here, but it was a stretch for people to pay $270, but once people found they could get (relatively speaking) the correction capability of a rotary with the safety of a DA, the product took off. I believe that Rupes (a European competitor of Flex) saw this, and decided to enter this market once they saw there was a market with detailers for premium/higher priced machines. And I`d say they were right.
 
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