I'm leaving my original post below, but here's an update on my Metabo. I just finished using it for over 2 hours on my car, going over it with both IP and FP2. Yeah, they were fairly quick passes, but the car was mostly in decent shape. I was also handicapped in trying to find marring because of the evening sunlight through the clouds.
I changed my technique a little and was able to avoid any overheating. First, I kept mostly to speeds 3-4, except for a little on plastic areas at 2. I was constantly stopping and starting while I buffed off panels and a couple of times it felt pretty warm, but when that happened I ran it with no load at all for a bit to let the cooling fan do its work. Next, I was very careful to avoid applying much of anything in the way of pressure. With my PC I was in the habit of bearing down a fair bit, as much as I could get away with without completely bogging it down. I think I carried too much of that habit over the the rotary and it was causing part of my overload problem, especially when I did it on my first outing or two on speed 1.
Summary, I believe that my technique was probably the cause of the problem. I'm trying to figure this all out on my own and haven't had a chance to watch anyone else use a rotary or compared to another Metabo. I have to take into account that I can't treat it the same as my PC.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I bought a slightly used Metabo and being a newb with a rotary, started off cautiously on speed 1. I made a first pass on half of the hood on a friend's car and noticed it was getting quite hot. I stopped for a few moments and when I tried to start again, it was going into overload protection mode and was reluctant to spin. I tried it once more at home, experienced the same thing in less than 5 minutes again and took it to the local authorized service center. They checked it out and said it looked like new inside, they couldn't find anything wrong. They also suggested I use a heavier extension cord. After picking up a 12/3 cord I had the same thing happen, then tried polishing the top of our dryer without an extension cord. It still overheated <5 minutes. On speed 2 it made it just about a full 5 minutes before it did the same thing.
After taking it back to the shop again, the repair guy checked it out, talked to Metabo and told me this is supposedly normal, that the cooling fan doesn't work effeciently until you're in the upper half of the speed range. I even tried calling Metabo directly, had a customer service rep put me on hold while he spoke to 2 different product managers for this buffer and they still insisted this is normal.
I haven't had occasion to go out and try it again yet on higher speeds, but I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
I changed my technique a little and was able to avoid any overheating. First, I kept mostly to speeds 3-4, except for a little on plastic areas at 2. I was constantly stopping and starting while I buffed off panels and a couple of times it felt pretty warm, but when that happened I ran it with no load at all for a bit to let the cooling fan do its work. Next, I was very careful to avoid applying much of anything in the way of pressure. With my PC I was in the habit of bearing down a fair bit, as much as I could get away with without completely bogging it down. I think I carried too much of that habit over the the rotary and it was causing part of my overload problem, especially when I did it on my first outing or two on speed 1.
Summary, I believe that my technique was probably the cause of the problem. I'm trying to figure this all out on my own and haven't had a chance to watch anyone else use a rotary or compared to another Metabo. I have to take into account that I can't treat it the same as my PC.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I bought a slightly used Metabo and being a newb with a rotary, started off cautiously on speed 1. I made a first pass on half of the hood on a friend's car and noticed it was getting quite hot. I stopped for a few moments and when I tried to start again, it was going into overload protection mode and was reluctant to spin. I tried it once more at home, experienced the same thing in less than 5 minutes again and took it to the local authorized service center. They checked it out and said it looked like new inside, they couldn't find anything wrong. They also suggested I use a heavier extension cord. After picking up a 12/3 cord I had the same thing happen, then tried polishing the top of our dryer without an extension cord. It still overheated <5 minutes. On speed 2 it made it just about a full 5 minutes before it did the same thing.
After taking it back to the shop again, the repair guy checked it out, talked to Metabo and told me this is supposedly normal, that the cooling fan doesn't work effeciently until you're in the upper half of the speed range. I even tried calling Metabo directly, had a customer service rep put me on hold while he spoke to 2 different product managers for this buffer and they still insisted this is normal.
I haven't had occasion to go out and try it again yet on higher speeds, but I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
