Rotary Speeds

sneek

New member
This came up on another forum, but who here uses their at 3000RPM? Yes that is RPM. I'll admit that I am not a pro but I just wanted to know if any pro's out there use their rotary at 3000RPM for polishing.

Thanks in advance.

If not 3000RPM what would you say is a good speed range?
 
3000 RPM would be a little fast...I start out at 900 to spread the polish and then go to 1500-1700 tops to work the polish ..sometimes on a heavy scratch i bump it to 2000 to work the scratch for a few seconds..but thats only for a heavy scratch..the rest of the polishing is 1500-1700 RPM's...that works best for me

Al
 
I run mine about 1200 and have never found that it was to fast or slow...3000 for paint or CC is to fast...for aluminum polishing I would say fine...you need to create heat there but on paint that could cause more problems than it would solve
 
I'm with beemerboy on this one. The only time you need to run your buffer that high is when you are polishing metal.

Depending on the product I'm using and the softness of the paint I start at 1000rpm and dont get any higher than 2000rpm. Most of the time I get the best results at 1000 to 1200rpm.

Troy
 
I agree...I have never taken my rotary above 2000 and actually wished it went below 1000. And even at times when I approached that speed it was for a small area, like a deeper scratch.

If you were to do a whole car at 3000, I would not like to see what it looks like after their done. I think it would be buffer trail city, along with maybe some worn down paint.
 
Theres no "need" to go over 2000ish RPM. Theres a difference with being able to and needing to. I've maxed mine out before, i know what i'm doing and can control it. Did i need to? no, but i can do it without any problems.

I just went and read that thread. Whats the big deal? That guys seems to know what he is doing and some novice who don't even know how to use a rotary disagrees with him? Now thats funny. Thats like a secretary telling a mechanic how to use a impact wrench,etc. LOL

Weekend warriors will never understand the business as well as someone who does it day in day out.
 
My original professional rotary purchased 30 plus years ago had a fixed speed of 2300 RPM. This worked fine for polishing the single stage paints such as acrylic lacquer and certain enamel paints used at that time. I found that speed to be too fast when buffing the newer clearcoat finishes, especially when using foam pads. I now use a Milwaukee Rotary with a 0 - 1700 max RPM. I find myself usually starting out on the slow side and working up to around 1200. This covers most of what I need to do very well. Experience will teach you that it is a combination of product, speed, pressure and pad composition that is needed to produce great results.
 
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