Searched, Made a descion on a rotary. Need your opinons..

C

Can You Hear Me

New member
My PC has done its job very well every time it has been used in its life.. But due to more jobs every weekend (2-3 Cars) Which is a lot for a high school student I am looking for an upgrade. But in short..The PC takes TOO dang long. I feel that my skill level will allow me to use a Rotary without too much trouble after testing on friends beaters for awhile :cool: I see from searching that if working well and keeping the rotary always moving you can get the same job done in almost half the time as the PC. I am on autogeek about to order a Makita Rotary Package that comes with a few pads. I also ordred two more pads. This all adds up to about under 300 dollars.. (I keep making all this money cleaning cars and end up spending it all on CG chemicals and Tools!) All the pads I have ordered with the machine are CCS Pads. Is there anything else I should pickup with the Rotary? Any advise? I was looking at the flex but it seems that it is a great machine but still cant get the Rotary effect. Just wanted to talk to people here before spending 300 earned dollars. Thanks everyone for helping out a Rotary Noob :bow :laugh:

-Nick
 
The Makita Rotary is a very nice machine. I purchased mine on Ebay for about $115, bought some 6 and 7.5 inch Lake Country pads from www.danase.com and will use it for the first time this spring when I do a full detail of my car. The rotary should significantly increase your speed while correcting paint, will it cut it in half as you asked?? I will need the more experienced rotary users to chime in to answer that.



Along with using your friends' beaters for trial and error, you may want to go to a junk yard and get a hood or something and purposely burn, swirl, hologram the paint just to get a feel for how far you can go with the rotary before causing damage. I will be going to the junk yard for that purpose in a month or so. However, if your friends' cars are junky enough that they don't car if you burn their paint, skip the junk yard hood and go to town on their car.
 
bert31 said:
What is it about Metabos that people like? Do they weigh less?
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It does weigh less, but it is solid. I have had lots of rotaries from a few Milwakees, lot's of B&D's, a bunch of Makita's, 1 Hitachi, 1 Dewalt, 1 Dynabrade, etc...



At first I hated the Metabo, as it felt like a toy with the small design, no trigger, bad place for dial, stupid on/off switch. But after I used it for a few weeks and went back to my others, I hated the others.



I actually grew custom to the Metabo and loved the extra control for finessing with your hand over the center of the drive. You can actually control the pressure right over the drive and make it do anything you want. It is one powerful machine.



But it is all preference. Makitas do make a great machine though! Makitas make some of the best tools.



For one coming from a pc, a Metabo would be easy to learn with the same design. Plus it is German built! It's very balanced and very precise. It loves RPM too.
 
Makita works for me! Once you get comfortable with it, look into some wool pads. Green and yellow wool pads are a huge comfort/time improvement over orange and yellow foam. Stay away from the black wool for a while though...don't ask me how I know.
 
Another vote for Makita. See my "look mom no handles" thread if you want some tips on using it. Your original question was about extras with the machine, I would get a 6" backing plate so you can use the LC CCS 7.5" pads with the mushroom shape - they have the back designed so the backing plate fits in perfectly - no issue with centering and you have a little "bumper" around the backing plate for protection. I'd get some wool, an orange and a white foam as a minimum. Another thing, properautocare has these pads with an extra blue section built in -like a gel insole - check it out, I think SpoiledMan kas tried these with good reviews.
 
Great! Thank you so much everyone for being so helpful. I feel very good about my purchase now. It should be here before the weekend so I plan on making a trip to the junkyard soon to get a really terrible pannel/hood to work on.. So from what I read the WOOL pads are easier on the paint than the FOAM pads? I might need to order some of these then..

-Nick



Edit: Autogeek is supplying me with the 7in backing and 8 1/2 pads. Is This a bad thing? I HATE worrying about having that wobble affect with the pads :wall
 
It's all personal preference - i can't say cause I like smaller pads that they are better, you'll have to try and see what feels right to you. You got a great machine coming, it will seem really different from that PC, in a good way!
 
Thanks again everyone. I am pumped to use it. I need to get better so I can get out and use this beast. Flu is going around my school. I think I am going to order some wood pads to praitce wet sanding on some really oxidized junk hoods/panels. I just watched the 5 Megs videos on wet sanding. Had some pretty cool info in there.. Post up anymore vids to help my self and other rotary noobs if you know of any!

-Nick

JuneBug. I am from charlotte, where are you in NC?
 
Can You Hear Me said:
Great! Thank you so much everyone for being so helpful. I feel very good about my purchase now. It should be here before the weekend so I plan on making a trip to the junkyard soon to get a really terrible pannel/hood to work on.. So from what I read the WOOL pads are easier on the paint than the FOAM pads? I might need to order some of these then..

-Nick



Edit: Autogeek is supplying me with the 7in backing and 8 1/2 pads. Is This a bad thing? I HATE worrying about having that wobble affect with the pads :wall
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I used to use the big pads exclusively. I now like the 6" and the 4" better. I dont even touch the 8".
 
Would a foam pad with a good amount of cut (yellow CCS ect..) have the ability to remove 3000-4000 grit wet sanding marks assuming you have the right product for the pad? or is Wool a must have? Sorry for all the questions! Let me know if I am missing a big thread somewhere with all this info. I have searched around here and acouple other forums but possibly my questions are too specific.

-Nick
 
Can You Hear Me said:
Would a foam pad with a good amount of cut (yellow CCS ect..) have the ability to remove 3000-4000 grit wet sanding marks assuming you have the right product for the pad? or is Wool a must have? Sorry for all the questions! Let me know if I am missing a big thread somewhere with all this info. I have searched around here and acouple other forums but possibly my questions are too specific.

-Nick
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Oh definitely. Yellow foam pads tend to hop, skip and gum up though. You'd be much better served by a green edge or purple lc wool pad - the risk of doing damage is actually less with those pads than a yellow foam, and the level of cut is comprable or only slightly more.
 
themightytimmah said:
Oh definitely. Yellow foam pads tend to hop, skip and gum up though. You'd be much better served by a green edge or purple lc wool pad - the risk of doing damage is actually less with those pads than a yellow foam, and the level of cut is comprable or only slightly more.
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Thank you very much. That helped a lot. This forum has changed my detailing game SO much. I really do appricate it. Never thought id be into this. Its a money pit! Every dollar I make from detailing goes to more chemicals/product. Eventually I hope to have everything and get some profit going. :spot :thx

-Nick
 
Thanks man. My friend and his dad own two buick muscle cars, ones paint is oxidized to hell. I am going to pratice on the hood. Will be reporting with pictures after. And a review for someone going from PC to this rotary.

-Nick
 
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