Technical question about picking up a bead

[Orca]

Inspired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C28N_a2ti24

I've been using this technique lately and find it much easier to get a consistent spread of polish over the face of the pad and the area to be polished. I do have a technical question, though:

Why the 10 o'clock position?

I find leading in at the 2 o'clock position to be much easier and gives me absolutely no splatter. I hold the polisher by the heel with my right hand and use my left to guide the head.

Is it a case of left versus right handed? Is there a benefit to perfecting the lead in from the 10 o'clock position ... or is it a case of if 2 o'clock works for me, then carry on?

[Orca]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Over 70 view ... surely someone has a "view" on the matter? Or am I over-stressing and it simply doesn't matter? Or does no-one actually do this?

[mako20C]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

not sure might have to with the direction the rotary spins?

[Orca]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

That was my first thought - done from the 10 o'clock position, the clockwise rotation has a greater chance of throwing the bead out of the top of the pad. Drawn in on a 7 o'clock position makes more sense from that side. I use the 2 o'clock position since the rotation makes use of more pad surface to pull the bead under/onto.

I suppose the 2 o'clock position might spray polish over the operator whereas the 10 o'clock position would throw it away from the operator if you do get throw/splatter.

I'm probably over-obsessing ... I had hoped one of the Mikes would explain.

[the other pc]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Pads are round. Every position on the pad is exactly the same as any other.

In theory, you could pick up product at any point on the edge of the pad.

What makes one position different from another for picking up product is the orientation of the bead and the direction you move the buffer.

In the video, Mike's moving the buffer from his right to his left. The motion is parallel to a line drawn through the 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock positions.

When moving the buffer in this direction it's only possible to pick up product between 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock.

When moving the buffer in this direction a clockwise spinning pad (looking down at the panel) is moving toward the bead between 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock. It's moving away from the bead between 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock.

If you hit the bead with the pad moving toward it you "push" the bead and you're more likely to get splatter. Hitting the bead with the pad moving away tends to "pull" the bead into the pad.

You can get splatter either way and I don't doubt you can avoid it too. But it's much easier to avoid it by pulling the bead into the pad/panel interface.

The 10 o'clock position is more or less half way between the pad's center point and outer edge and tends to spread the product evenly across the face.



pc.

[Orca]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Thank you for the reply ... I will mull it over ... and no doubt wake up in the middle of the night drawing circles in the air with my finger trying to figure it out

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Nicely answered, Paul! Of course, and engineer would be able to explain it so well!

"One of the Mike's" would have responded to this yesterday if we both weren't out for the day at the Long Beach Grand Prix Media Day, so we apologize for missing this until now.

The key thing here is that the pad not be totally flat against the paint when it initially contacts the bead or it will throw it in a tangent from the point of impact. Where on the "clock" you pick up the bead may well be dependent on whether you're right handed or left handed. From Mike's perspective in that demo he was, as Paul points out, moving the pad from right to left, and picking up the bead across the 10 - 2 line. But, from the perspective of the cameraman, Shawn, the tool was moving left to right and the bead was being picked up across the 8 - 4 line. Regardless of your point of reference to the pad & bead, there was zero splatter when Mike picked up that bead.

[Orca]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Awesome! Thank you for the reply. I am very comfortable with this technique, just that I do it the other way - at the 2 o'clock position and move left to right across the bead (from the operator perspective). Given the rotation of the machine, this gives me 2/3 of the pad to "pull" the bead under.

On vertical surfaces, I'm still practising. I can draw an upright bead and then pull it in at the 5 o'clock position moving down the bead, or the 11 o'clock position riding up the bead ... basically, just a tick in advance of the parallel axis of the orientation of the bead.

Spinning my finger around in mid-air thinking through PC's reply, that seems to make sense. So, there's nothing much in it other than whichever handedness the operator is and with direction they are most comfortable with drawing across the bead.

Aside from being very effective at distributing the polish across the pad, it looks fly

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Technical question about picking up a bead

Where you pick up a bead of product is relative to the the direction you are moving the polisher, as long as you are running the bead of product into the pad in a way that the pad will pull the bead into itself versus splattering or kicking it outward.


Once you figure out where the line or bead of product is in relationship to how you want to pick it up and draw in into your pad, it all become relative. Hard to explain with a keyboard but real handy for picking up beads of product when working on panels that don't lend themselves well to the 10 @ 10 Technique but instead maybe the 4 @ 10, or 2 @ 10 or 8 @ 10

As long as when your run the pad over the bead of product you do it in a way the the product is being pulled into the pad and not splattered outward you can modify the technique to fit the panel.