Detailers>>orbital vs rotary
Evening all, Have a 2007 fifth wheel that I am trying to get to sparkle. From everything I have read on detailing page, a orbital buffer polisher does not "cut" into the clear coat enough to remove...
Forum Discussion
When I worked in my dad's bodyshop we were still using mostly lacquers so everything had to be polished out before the paint job was done. We had both polishers and buffers, they were two different machines that looked the same but different amounts of power and running speeds. The polishers were strong enough to double as sanders, with a disk rather than a pad.
Both were rotary, but we were starting to work with small air-drive orbital buffers, for buffing out paste wax jobs and for some very light sanding. These had two advantages: lighter weight than the electrical polishers, and a low skill person could use them without doing too much damage to the finish.
A big professional grade rotary polisher, with the right compound (more important than the choice of wheel) can eventually cut through anything. If you don't know what you are doing, you can get through the whole finish in spots faster than you can notice. When we brought in guys off the street to apprentice, we started them on sanding, polishing and buffing. It would take about a year to master the polishing wheel.
Whether or not you get swirl marks depends more on how you use it than which device you use. Orbitals are safer for low skill levels. Less power, and less weight, are better for low skill levels. This is why consumer grade buffers and polishers are usually light, low powered, and orbital. They can do the same job as professional polishing wheels, but the job will take a lot longer. Getting into trouble also comes more slowly.
The best work is done by hand, but often that takes more experience than a low power orbital wheel. In our work, everything (sanding, polishing, buffing) has to be finished by hand anyway, because a wheel doesn't reach everywhere and there are things you just don't want to get close to, particularly with the fragile finishes on plastic trim pieces used today.
Both were rotary, but we were starting to work with small air-drive orbital buffers, for buffing out paste wax jobs and for some very light sanding. These had two advantages: lighter weight than the electrical polishers, and a low skill person could use them without doing too much damage to the finish.
A big professional grade rotary polisher, with the right compound (more important than the choice of wheel) can eventually cut through anything. If you don't know what you are doing, you can get through the whole finish in spots faster than you can notice. When we brought in guys off the street to apprentice, we started them on sanding, polishing and buffing. It would take about a year to master the polishing wheel.
Whether or not you get swirl marks depends more on how you use it than which device you use. Orbitals are safer for low skill levels. Less power, and less weight, are better for low skill levels. This is why consumer grade buffers and polishers are usually light, low powered, and orbital. They can do the same job as professional polishing wheels, but the job will take a lot longer. Getting into trouble also comes more slowly.
The best work is done by hand, but often that takes more experience than a low power orbital wheel. In our work, everything (sanding, polishing, buffing) has to be finished by hand anyway, because a wheel doesn't reach everywhere and there are things you just don't want to get close to, particularly with the fragile finishes on plastic trim pieces used today.
