JAGMAJ

I know that everybody here swears by the Porter Cable polisher, but for now, I just have a basic 9" Sears orbital polisher (3000 rpm). I was wondering what the limitations were on my ability to detail my car with this more basic polisher. I have Menzerna IP, FPII, Glaze, and FMJ, but I'm not sure which of these products can be effectively applied without upgrading to a PC or a circular polisher.

dshreter

I don't know anything about your specific polishes, but I'll try my best.

3000rpm is very fast, so if your polisher is actually operating that quickly under load that is a circular polisher. But, if it is a light duty kind of tool like I would imagine it is, this completely limits your ability to do paint correction with real polishing. Lightweight polishers can be useful for applying products and buffing them off, but thats about it.

Even using a PC, which is quite powerful and oscillates very quickly, paint correction is quite a slow process. Using anything with less power is pretty impractical.

Do you have a picture of your polisher?

JAGMAJ

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/119992/polisher.jpg"></center><p>Pretty basic. As you can see, the label shows 3000 rpm. I noticed that the PC lists its RPM as being variable between 2500 and 6000. I don't know how much deep polishing 3000 rpm will do-- assuming this one actually does 3000 rpm as the label says.

muzzy996

The power to do surface correction for an orbital such as that is much less than that of a PC which is RANDOM orbital. I.E. the PC will not only spin the pad but oscillate it at the same time.

Similarly, a true rotary polisher has much more power behind it and can be much more effective than a PC even if the rotary is spinning at a lower RPM and the the PC is set to max.

To answer your question, YES there are limitations to a machine like yours. It is okay to apply/remove waxes or glazes but not very effective for major surface correction. You'd probably be able to do oxidation removal with it and a light polish (like FP II) but you stand little chance of taking off swirls with it.

Menzerna IP is capable of doing a LOT more surface correction with a rotary than you'd ever get it to do by hand or with the machine you have. Even stepping up to a PC with the right pads will allow you to do much better than you would with that orbital polisher.


I have one similar to the one you have, and since I picked up a PC the sears one hasn't seen the light of day.