Trying to learn on a DeWalt 849

**flyinion** · 04-08-2012, 07:24 PM

So I borrowed my friend's DeWalt 849, not the newer one that's in the AG store but the old one that weighs about 8-10 pounds and goes from 1000rpm up. I was trying to practice on an old door panel he acquired but it didn't go as well as I hoped. The door is not a flat panel, it's an old Honda door and has a bit of a curve to it. Paint is non-metallic red (probably doesn't matter just putting it out there as info). I only have 5.5 x 7/8th inch pads since that's what I use on my current PC 7424 (non-xp about 10+ years old). So I was trying it out with the WG TSR and an old orange LC CCS pad at 1200rpms (AG's recommendation for TSR on the product page).

I was able to control it fairly easy in what would be the horizontal orientation of the door was mounted (i.e. from left to right & right to left laying down) but when it came time to go in what would be a vertical direction if it was mounted (i.e. away and back to me) it was trying to walk all over. It would also try to walk ever time I reversed direction to cover the previous pass by 50%. I called my friend and he said to slightly lift the leading edge of the pad up. That confused me because I've always read to keep it perfectly flat with a rotary but it seemed to help slightly. I still had a lot of problems in the one direction though.

So I guess I could use some more advice on technique. Am I going to fast maybe? Is it the "hard edges" of the CCS pad? I know the flat pads have a rounded edge and the larger 7+ inch rotary specific foam pads have an angled edge. On a positive note, I didn't seem to create any holograms and even though I purposely tried it I couldn't burn the paint or an edge but maybe I didn't have an aggressive enough pad/product/speed to do that.

**Dr Oldz** · 04-08-2012, 07:55 PM

Honestly, you just need to practice. Using a rotary isn't hard but some time is needed to get a feel for the machine. As to what your friend said, u dont actually want to lift the pad off of the paint. You just want to keep a bit more pressure on the trailing part of the pad and that will help with the machine wanting to take off on you until you have a good feel for it.

**flyinion** · 04-09-2012, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by Dr Oldz

Honestly, you just need to practice. Using a rotary isn't hard but some time is needed to get a feel for the machine. As to what your friend said, u dont actually want to lift the pad off of the paint. You just want to keep a bit more pressure on the trailing part of the pad and that will help with the machine wanting to take off on you until you have a good feel for it.

Ok thanks. Maybe that's what he was trying to say is more pressure on the trailing part and it just didn't come across right.

Mike Phillips · 04-09-2012, 07:30 AM

Learning to use a rotary buffer is like what Jim said, practice, practice practice...

I typed up some info about using a rotary buffer in this thread,

New Flex PE14 - How to use ONLY a rotary buffer to finish out hologram free?

And here's a video with some tips...

Video: Tips for using a Rotary Buffer and the Flex 3401 on vertical panels

**flyinion** · 04-09-2012, 12:31 PM

Thanks Mike I'll check those out in depth when I get home. I think I've glanced over the article before but I don't think I've seen the video.

edit: My plan is to hopefully get confident enough with it and step up from my original version PC 7424 to the newer DeWalt DWP849X model. I'd love the flex but there's a huge price difference lol. I thought about just getting the flex XC3401 VRG DA polisher but for the price it seemed like maybe a better idea to just learn a rotary. I'm open to input on that though. I'm not doing any pro level work, just mine and friends/family vehicles.

**Dr Oldz** · 04-09-2012, 06:48 PM

I can say that I own a DWP849X and truly love the machine. It has a lot of detailer friendly features and is a very well built machine. You will be happy with your purchase!