Milwaukee 5460

[gpxgt]

Hello everyone, I would like to say that I've found this forum super helpful and I really wish I'd found this site along time ago. Now with that all said I need a little info on this polisher. I've lost the instructions on this thing years ago and never really put much thought into this, because I really didn't know better. I've done a little google searching and found out the rpms on this thing is 0-1750. I would have guessed it was way more than that set on the 5 setting, haha. If you rotary gurus were to use this with say 80, 83, and 84 which setting would you use and be comfortable with. Is this a pretty good polisher, it was expensive lol, or would the PC 7336 (I think thats the right one) be better? I won a PC rotary at a detailing class (good thing it was a free class) I attended but I traded it for a head gasket job on my cavy, wish I would have trade the milwaukee cause this thing weighs a ton. I'm in the process of getting a g100, I'm very eager to see what results I can get out of that seeing that others have gotten some amazing results. But I'd also like to master this rotary.

My rotary history is I was trained for about 3 weeks by this old man that owned a detail shop for 30+ years so I figured he was a master with this thing, well now reading and watching videos I see that he wasn't. This guy would get a vehicle in and just start buffing it, thats right no washing first and it didn't matter how much dirt was on the vehicle. Example, we got an older F150 in that was dark red, along the sides were white with caked on dirt, he just started buffing away. I asked about washing and he said something along the line of well its gonna need to be buffed anyway. That was my first detailing job and I did learn a lot from him and his wife. For the most part this is a decent shop compared to whats around. Well since then I've been self taught with no one really understanding what the rotary is all about. I didn't really understand pad selection and what different pads where for. I would use a wool pad only and never a different one for each step, just clean as I go. I thought I had this thing kinda figured out until I found this site, now I know exactly what I've been doing wrong and what the proper way is, kind of ***** when you have no one to turn to for advice. Now doing it wrong for so long I still have a good feel for the rotary and how it behaves. I've gotten 3 of each foam pads and I'm ready to tackle my car again. I've always hated the results I got with this polisher but I really do understand why now. I'd just like to get the correct speed setting down and then I'll give it a try and post some pics of my poor Grand Prix.

Again I'd like to point out that this site is a wealth of information and it has to be the friendliest forum I've ever been to/read. Thanks for the help everyone and look forward to reading more and more. I know my love for making vehicles look there best has been improved greatly from lurking around here.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Milwaukee 5460

Are you planning on detailing cars for money or are you just wanting to take care of your own cars and trucks?


Buffing out a car using a rotary buffer is a lot of work and if this is for daily drivers you can get the paint shiny, clean and protected by hand or with a DA Polisher easier and with usually less steps and time invested.

So if it's for your car and your car is a daily driver you might want to consider your other options and if it's for customers and you're basically doing production work, not show car work, then the rotary buffer is going to add more time for what should and would normally be a faster detail job which could eat into your profits.

If you really want to get into using the rotary buffer then pick up a selection of buffing pads in different sizes, and also some products for this tool that you're interested in, for example M105, M83, M82, M80


Then practice on a car that no one cares about, or at least cares if you make a mistake.

One of the most important things you can do when doing any kind of paint polishing is to make sure you work clean, this includes a clean car and a clean shop. Also, form the habit of cleaning your buffing pads often, most people don't clean their pads often enough when buffing out a car.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Milwaukee 5460

There's a ton of information in the below two forum groups, including some on holograms in the Hot Topics forum.

Have Questions? Looking for Answers?
So much good, practical and helpful information in these two forums
Hot Topics
How To Articles



Here's one from the How To Articles forum.

Learning to use the Rotary Buffer

[gpxgt]

Re: Milwaukee 5460

Well I'm thinking about getting back into it, about 8 years ago I had my own shop but I was young and dumb and expected to much to fast and got out of it. I've since then had a few different jobs detailing for other people but it seems where ever I think I find a decent shop it turns into a corner cutting get as much money as possible place that isn't my way of doing it. Example, my cousin got me a job at a truck accessory shop where they detailed. I went up there and "tried out" for the position only to find this place is wanting me to spray wheel cleaner on door panels and leather seats and power wash it off leaving the inside totally soaked, I've personally never seen that before lol. The manager told me they paid someone $4,000 to train them on how to do that procedure.

Anyways, my car might be beyond the DA its been neglected because I can't keep the stupid thing out of the body shop, thats no excuse btw. I'm gonna give the g100 first tries on it and see if that will work fine but I might need the rotary and I've read I think all the post on here about everything, been lurking for a bout a week or so, haha. Like I said I've picked 3 pads of each of the Megs foam pads and I just placed an order with ADS for about $1,200. Personally I hope I get the hang of the g100 so I don't have to use the rotary like I use to. Like you said rotary takes along time, might be longer now that I got a better understanding of this thing, haha. But I still think having that experience would be more than helpful if I do get back into it full time. Also been thinking about taking some body shop classes to learn hands on with the wetsanding.