Video demoing rotary use...do we have one?

[-Longhorn-]

All of a sudden when I do vertical panels I cant do them for sh!t. The pad is bouncing everywhere and Im leaving trails. If I put more compound on it works way to long. If I use the pad lube it slings everywhere. All I'm using is a Hitachi Rotary with a 5.5 inch orange pad.

[Mike Phillips]

Sorry...

We don't have any rotary videos at least not specifically on working vertical panels.


How are you approaching the panel?

• Are you standing but bending over?
• Squatting?
• Sitting on a chair?
• Sitting on the ground?
• The vehicle is on a lift and you're working on it standing up because you could raise to your shoulder height...

???

[Mike Phillips]

I'll check back on this thread as I'm moving onto an offline project...



Here's a few tips...

You want to be looking straight across from the panel you're working on, so you either bring the panel up to you... that means the vehicle is on a lift of some sort, or you bring yourself down to the panel.

Don't squat and don't bend over, you will loose too much control over the tool and bending over and buffing with a rotary won't be good for your back.


When holding the rotary buffer, you should not have your arms reached out away from you, by this I mean you want to be close to the buffer and the panel.

When you have your arms close to your body you have leverage over the rotary buffer, if you have your arms extended, the rotary buffer will have leverage over you.

I prefer not to use a handle of any type and instead just place my hand on the head of the rotary buffer, together with the other hand at the handle it's a good secure grip with excellent control and less muscle fatigue... (just my opinion)


Clean your pad often, a pad with built-up spent product and removed paint will not buff smoothly.

Always wipe spent residue off the panel before re-buffing

Keep your RPM's at around 1500 RPM, with today's modern clear coats there's really not good reason to heat them up and you don't really need the higher RPM's, everything can be done from about 1300 RPM to 1500 RPM for correction work.


If I think of some more I'll post them...

[the_invisible]

All I'm using is a Hitachi Rotary with a 5.5 inch orange pad.

Many users, including myself, have issues using the smaller orange pad with the rotary. The pad simply jumps and skips all over the place no matter how you work the pad. If you want to use an orange pad with the rotary, try the larger curved ones designed for rotary.

[Da Fats]

OR.... if you gotta go with orange on a rotary you might as well pull out the wool and get it done easier and faster... both will need 2 step follow up regaurdless...

Advice given to me by Dana.... it definitely has held true in my limited experience

Now I just need to find some good 3 -4 inch wool pad options for those tight areas...

[Bonifax]

As Mike explains that you need a smaller and thiner pad to maximize the PC results, with the rotary you need to use big pads for ease of use. Obviously it does not mean that you will get best results if you use big sized pads, the thing is that the rotary is just easy to maneuver with the big ones.

[-Longhorn-]

I sit on a pad on the ground when working low. I found using a pad conditioner and always keeping it slightly damp did the trick. Thank you all for your thoughts. Now if I could get this darn M3 done!