air vs eletric buffer...

A

artman4life

I make yo ride bling!! :)
i have a makita and a pc, thinking of getting and air buffer, saw a friend of mine use his air buffer at his shop, light wieght and seemed easier to control, but thinking might be lil more finessing to use. whats your thoughts on pro's cons and exp with an air buffer??
 
this buffer will be strictly for at work, since im at a dealership, air compressor isnt an issue, only redirecting the lines at work wich my boss said wasnt a problem to have done. then my makita will stay in my car so i wont have to transport anything from work for any side/personal jobs i get
 
What dr_detail said! The compressors in the average home shop aren't up to the demands of a Pneumatic DA. In fact some shop compressors aren't. They are real air pigs. Getting a compressor that will adequately support one of these can bring on another set of potential problems. Is the shop set up for 220 and in the case of the higher output compressors is it set up for 3 phase? I said basically the same thing in a similar thread some time back. In my opinion a pneumatic polisher/sander is over kill unless you're doing real body work on a regular basis. That's when they shine through. They will remove large quantities of primer, fillers, Bondo in short order. If you're set up to take care of these types of jobs then by all means use a pneumatic. That said, you still need the right one because some of these are capable of 10,000 rpms which is obviously way too fast for detailing a finish. One last thought, in my experience they aren't any easier to use than an electric buffer, wrangling an air hose is more difficult than a power cord.

Edit: Artman4life sneaked his response in before I finished typing this post.
 
GearHead_1 said:
Edit: Artman4life sneaked his response in before I finished typing this post.
Click to expand...

i try to stay on the down low :inspector:

the conpressors we have running all the air tools from the technicians at work as in their air drills, air guns etc, with 7 bays just downstairs, then im actually in the upstairs garage at work wich used to be a body shop yrs back and now is the detail depart. im sure the compressor(s) are capable of the job. that being said, the buffer i was looking at is from my snap on dealer, offering a blue point brand, max speed at 2600 rpm, which is very sutable since the makita is 3000 max, and i run 2-4 speed most of the time
 
Sounds like you're looking at the right model. Blue Point has been good to me over the years. One note, air guns and air drills aren't nearly the drain that a DA is on a compressor. The sustained flow through these at fairly high pressures (sustained from 90-115) means the compressor has to have a high duty cycle not just be capable of high pressure. A drill or air gun will use the air and then give the compressor recovery time. The DA will not. It isn't unusual to see a compressor that will deliver up to 175 lbs. but many will only do this for a short period of time and then struggle to keep 75 lbs. in the tank. The kind I'm talking about are your typical dual stage Sears, Home Depot type compressors. Any good high pressure compressor will have a good refrigeration/dryer system on it. I'm not saying that your shops compressor isn't up to the task but I know that some of the compressors I see repair shops using aren't up to the needs of a body shop. You're at a dealership and they probably have some type of body shop facility and have this all figured out.
 
I had an air powered Snap-on back in the early 90's with a max no load speed of 10k which was adjustable (not on the fly though). I also installed a inline air regulator which helped to keep down the max RPMs. Two biggest issues I had were the air discharge and the lack of torque. The air discharged downward and would tend to spit now and then. This air discharge seemed to send more dust and crud up in the air making for longer clean-up times. The uncontrollable spitting led to product build-up -- a little dripping on the pad when your at the final buff-off of a glaze is kinda annoying. As for the torque, air polishers seem to lack it. They spin fast with no load, but as soon as product was added it would bog down to a crall, then speed up as the product broke down -- this is a good thing on a small range but the range on these polishers, the slow to fast was not consistient with the product breakdown. They are great for metal polishing on the likes of diamond plate -- hands down IMO the best choice for nopainted surfaces (of course if you have an air pig compressor).
 
I have used a DeVilbiss Air DA with my home Craftsman 5.5 hp, 25 gal compressor. (I already had the compressor and thought I'd get away cheap after seeing a detail shop's rig.) This is a BIG home setup, but not big enough. Inadequate, IMO, to keep up a constant oscillation speed. Plus, in our very humid climate, the thing drips on the car constantly. (I know that you paint guys use air filters to dry the compressed air, but I didn't want to put MORE money into an already unsatisfactory system.) Oh yeah, and I pop the GFCI in the garage about once an hour. Ain't worth it.
 
thanks for the input from both sides of the spectrum. my snap on guy comes every friday, so thats when i'll ask more about what he has and talk to my supervisor more bout the air lines. the lines still have to be moved b4 i would actually get the buffer anyways.
 
ok, so months later i reopen this thread, lol. I purchased a Blue Point DA polisher/sander from my local snap on guy. personally, i love this thing already. Only been a week since i got it, and has been mostly used for applying wax/sealants, but I have played arround with minor swirl removal with this machine. Here's what i gathered after 1 week, no problems with speed consistancy. i actually find it easier to keep the air line off the car rather than an extenstion cord, my airlline is alot stiffer than the elect cord so right over my shoulder and it is out of the way for me. results.....i think im gettin an even more even coat of wax on the cars than even with the PC, seems to spread out the product more and goes alot further. i can finish down pretty good with a rotary so it is faitn faint swirls im dealing with when i use the Blue Point now, but even with the meg da pads, (wich im not a big fan of personally) I seem to be gettin and even crisper and much clearer final result now than with the PC, not that the PC was even close to bad results, but with a detailers eye, you can notice a considerable diff i think. Here is my issues now.... the cons lol. I now need a backin plate that is gonna handle the extra umph that this thing puts out. I now know that the 2k system isnt gonna last long at all with this machine, blowed up a blue 2k pad earlier this week, preety neat to see one flin apart lol. and the meg DA backin plates come apart at the velcro, even with the PC, so the Blue point just speeds that up. whats the strongest and most heavey duty backing plate for a DA? lol
 
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