Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

[Andrew C.]

So I went down to a local body shop and picked up a hood to fool around with my new rotary on. Unfortunately the only one that they had there was a light silver hood.... which hid defects like you cannot believe. I took the fined sandpaper I had laying around to mar it up, but it was only 220 grit


As you can see, a horrible color to work on for defects:





Overall, it was a good run, but even though I went ahead and barely even went over the surface with the 220 grit, there was just no way to completely remove all of those marks.

Here are my Issues:

I'm waiting on my Meguiar's pads and backing plates to come in, so I was just using the Makita Rotary backing plate and 2 wool pads that come with it. They aren't the best pads, because they are very hard to center and they feel like they are offbalance and wobble when running the machine.

I was running it at around 1400 rpms and sometimes close to 1800 rpms. Is it just me, or is it the pads, because I felt like whenever I applied any pressure, it would try to move its own direction and I would have to fight it somewhat.

When I was just guiding the machine, it behaved fairly well, but every-once and a while it would try to go its own direction.

Any Tips?



And now for the FUN STUFF!

So I got a little bored and decided to see what it would take to burn through the paint. I went ahead and kicked the Makita up to 2500 RPM's and put it at an angle for about 5 seconds, an voila! I could smell it and yep there it was, burnt paint



It was funny looking, because the clear almost wasn't burnt, but just pushed up and away off the surface of the base coat.

I was a little more aggressive here:





Then I got to wondering what it would look like all the way down to the metal, so I went to town with some 150 grit

Ok, Through the clear






Down to the Metal, Anyone know why there are so many layers?




Can't wait to try my Makita out again once I get my Meguiar's pads in. I think I may actually scrap this hood and go to another body shop, looking for in a better color, because this was just a pain to work with. I couldn't tell if there were holograms or anything left behind because you could barely see the dang 220 grit sanding marks on it!

For those of you wondering how thin paint really is, be amazed! It looks thicker in this picture than it really is because it was on a slight angle because my camera couldn't pick it up. It is literally about the thickness of a couple pieces of notebook paper (this is a chip of primer, base, and clear too!)




I'll post more up once I get my pads and a new hood!

[DualActionDetail]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

Here are my Issues:

I'm waiting on my Meguiar's pads and backing plates to come in, so I was just using the Makita Rotary backing plate and 2 wool pads that come with it. They aren't the best pads, because they are very hard to center and they feel like they are offbalance and wobble when running the machine.

I was running it at around 1400 rpms and sometimes close to 1800 rpms. Is it just me, or is it the pads, because I felt like whenever I applied any pressure, it would try to move its own direction and I would have to fight it somewhat.

When I was just guiding the machine, it behaved fairly well, but every-once and a while it would try to go its own direction.

Any Tips?

I know what you mean about it taking off on you. I tried out my new DeWalt 849 that I received last week; and had the same issue; but I got better at controlling it once I began anticipating the "kick". I wrote a little about my first time in the other thread you have (Makita or Flex Rotary?).

That stinks about the yard only having silver hoods, gotta find a black one somewhere!

It's cool to have someone else starting rotary training at the same time, too bad you're across the country. Keep us posted.

[FRS]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

Thanks for the post Andrew, it's good for guys like me who are planning to start using the rotary.

As I can not answer any of your Q's I'm all ears to learn ..

[ClearlyCoated]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions



Maybe you could have a decal made up of the burn-through.


Would be a howler at the TNOG closest to the next April Fool's Day

[xantonin]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

I don't believe there's an easy fix for the rotary running off. You just need to keep it centered and use lighter pressure.

How exactly did you get the hood from the body shop? Did they charge you? I would like to get one but don't know where to start.

[RogueGypsy]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

I'm new with the rotary as well, I've had mine for about a year and only been able to use it a few times. But here's what I've picked up.

First I watched the rotary videos on MOL, then I found a few on YouTube to compare and contrast methods.

It seems to be mostly about the balance and consistency. So I practiced at low RPM (600), until I could get the rotary to stay put or move with one hand. Right away I could tell I was tilting the machine when I would push or pull, because the pad would grab and the machine would try to skitter away. To correct this I visualized a line running horizontally from the handle through the head and a perpendicular line running vertically through the head and pad to the contact point on the paint. Kind of like a 'T'. As long as I kept the top of the 'T' parallel to the surface I was polishing, the pad would float along nicely and all was good. Any tilt and off it would go in whatever direction it wanted. Once I could keep it balanced on the center of the pad, higher RPM's were just as easy.

I found the easiest way to stay parallel while forming muscle memory was to extend my middle finger so that it was just touching the surface I was polishing. Using it as a 'guide' for handle height. Of course that only works on reasonably flat surfaces, but it has worked well for me.

Pay attention to the direction of rotation: If I recall correctly, my Makita rotates clockwise. So, if the if the machine is going to the left I'm on the front of the pad, to the right is the rear of the pad, forward is the right side of the pad and backward is the left side of the pad. Correct as needed.

Keep the pad clean and moist. You should be used to that from a DA, but a rotary makes it more obvious. Clean the pad every couple of passes and spritz the pad with Last Touch if it starts to get dry. A clean moist pad glides along really smooth.

Move slow and let the weight of the machine apply the pressure. I like a 12"-18" square for a work area, about 3 pad lengths. When I start my first pass, I count slowly from 1-5, then return counting to 5. So each pass is about 5 seconds. 'Pass' being from the time I start to move the pad, until I change direction. I over lap each pass by 50% so I do about 5 passes in each section before moving on to the next. After the first pass, I'll feel the paint for heat. Warm is fine, hot is bad. If the paint is getting hot, I lower the speed. You can also move faster, but too fast will make some nasty rotary trails in the paint. I never apply pressure, I just guide the machine along and let it do the work. Pros may have a different approach, but being a novice I prefer to take my time and avoid damaging my paint. If the weight of the machine isn't removing the defects, I try more aggressive products until I find one that will.

I guess my basic method is consistency. The weight of the machine is consistent, the speed is consistent and each product is consistent. I'm the unknown variable here. So by keeping my hand moving at the same speed and not applying pressure, I can eliminate the unknown variable. Then using different products as known variables, I can control the outcome. Or at least easily find my mistake and correct it.

HTH

Good Luck

[Andrew C.]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

Maybe you could have a decal made up of the burn-through.


Would be a howler at the TNOG closest to the next April Fool's Day

Haha I think that is physically impossible to do with a rotary! That took a while using 150 Grit!

How exactly did you get the hood from the body shop? Did they charge you? I would like to get one but don't know where to start.

I just went down to my local body shop and asked them if they had to pay to have their junk parts taken away. They said, yes and I said, how about I take one off your hands for free?

Good Luck

Thanks for the advice Gypsy. I didn't realize that it would run when my pad isn't flat, and that makes a lot of sense now. I only really experienced this when I would add pressure to the pad, so I think I am going to take your advice and not really add pressure. I feel that there wasn't much padding in the backing plate or pad by Makita, so that probably made them much more susceptible to running away with applied pressure.

[Woodie6250]

Re: Tried out my Rotary Today, Have a few Questions

One of the quick tips that helped me was to consciously relax the grip of my rear hand. i.e. the hand at the trigger/speed dial area. Initially using the rotary is quite a nervy experience and the natural instinct is to grip the machine tightly, which I found is actually counter-productive.