As a newbie polisher could I get away with just having the Makita PO6000C 6” pad.

[Submariner]

I am still trying to find a 3” backing Pad that I can fit on, or adapt to attach to my PO6000C.

not having much joy!

I saw a video with Kevin Brown using a 6” DA, and he did have at one stage only part of the pad, on some small sections.

Obviously KB is probably imo a genius level polisher.

But could I as a first timer, get away with just having say 1/4 of the Pad flat on some small sections?

The sort of areas I want to do are highlighted in this pic of my front bumper, with red highlighter arrows

So one might have 1/4 of the pad on the narrow section.

Alternatively I did see a Flex 8-4 80 with a 3” backing pad, thats reasonable at £149.
but I was a tad concerned; as its a rotary, not a “newbie-safe” DA. And its lowest speed is 1,350 ... I would have felt safer if it went down to 700rpm

I am not doing any compounding just final finishing with 3M Ultrafina SE, and the blue Ultrafina Pad.

[KirkH]

Best plan would be get a Griot's or even a Porter Cable DA with a 3" backing plate.

[Dr Oldz]

For those small areas you can also buy attachments(backing plate) for a cordless drill, a few small pads and buff it that way. Saves a lot of looking for backing plates that don’t exist for your Makita polisher.

[Black Lab]

Newbie? No compounding? Limited on tools? I'll just throw out the suggestion of doing those areas by hand. Heck, I've got 5 polishers and still do areas like the air dam in the pic you posted by hand. Not often, but for a quick polish... everyone needs a little carpal tunnel to tell their friends about, right?

[Submariner]

Best plan would be get a Griot's or even a Porter Cable DA with a 3" backing plate.

Thanks
Sadly We pay a lot more in the UK ...

[BillE]

As "Black Lab" said above, I'd be doing those itty bitty areas by hand. Sometimes the 'old fashioned way' is the easiest and quickest.

Good luck...

Bill

[Submariner]

As "Black Lab" said above, I'd be doing those itty bitty areas by hand. Sometimes the 'old fashioned way' is the easiest and quickest.

Good luck...

Bill

Thanks
Luckily Mike checked for me that ine can use the Flex 75mm mini backing pad.
So I have ordered one of those.
And any difficult areas Ill do by hand

[Submariner]

For those small areas you can also buy attachments(backing plate) for a cordless drill, a few small pads and buff it that way. Saves a lot of looking for backing plates that don’t exist for your Makita polisher.

Thanks I found a set, and could use my right angle mini drill.
Mike very kindly found out for me that the Flex mini backing pad fits.
So I will try that and hope the Makita is not too big.
If it is I could try that set, with the mini drill.

Just a bit worried as its been used on some wood beams , and has a Ventilation system designed to blast air at the drilling hole, so in my case on the back of the backing pad.
Lets hope their isnt any wood dust inside the machine that could be blasted onto the panel. Will need a serious clean to avoid that.

[RippyD]

Given that it's been used on wood I'd take the time to clean it as well as possible. Maybe run some compressed air through the vents, then run it, then compressed air the other way through the vents, run it, and keep going until there's no more dust. Obviously remove any visible sawdust with brushes, vacuum, or whatever. I would be inclined to disassemble and clean it it's not under warranty. You of course would need to be comfortable doing so.

The common complaint I've seen about this machine is that it stalls easily in free-spinning mode. I think many people consider it a forced rotation machine only based on the free-spinning performance.

[Submariner]

Given that it's been used on wood I'd take the time to clean it as well as possible. Maybe run some compressed air through the vents, then run it, then compressed air the other way through the vents, run it, and keep going until there's no more dust. Obviously remove any visible sawdust with brushes, vacuum, or whatever. I would be inclined to disassemble and clean it it's not under warranty. You of course would need to be comfortable doing so.

The common complaint I've seen about this machine is that it stalls easily in free-spinning mode. I think many people consider it a forced rotation machine only based on the free-spinning performance.

Thanks that was pretty much my envisaged cleaning route.
But if the Flex mini backing pad works the I may just get by using it on the Makita.

I saw those “stalling” issues comments.
What I find odd is everyones goal seems to be , that it must spin .... so why not then just put it in forced mode?
Other thsn in free spinning mode, it offers the protection not to burn off an edge because it wouls stall.