I bought a cheap 10 inch orbital buffer last year but is kind of big and cumbersome. I'm thinking I'd like a "professional" buffer. What brand? where to buy? How much? Any info would be helpful. Thanks

 

I got mine at Lowe's.....the Porter Cable 7336SP, and I ordered a set of pads from Meguiar's for various jobs. This buffer is about as "professional" as a consumer needs and it's extremely popular among enthusiast detailers. It's a R/O buffer and will not burn or harm the paint, like a rotary can in the wrong hands...

They run about $100, although some siites like Meguiar's, Griot's, etc, sell the exact same buffer for 2 or 3 times that price....

Here's what it looks like... http://www.portercable.com/index.asp?e=547&p=2806

You'll definitely need better buffing pads than the stock pad. Their pad is ultra-crap and mine fell apart after one or two uses....

 

Milwaukee makes a good rotary buffer. I've tried makita but I didn't like it as much.

 

I use a Porter Cable random orbital buffer/polisher and it has done an oustanding job on my finish in conjunction with the 3M surface care products.

 

Whats a good pad buffing pad?
BTW, what are the main reasons for getting an orbital type buffer? I heard that all of them will leave swirls?

 

I use the set of 3 pads from Meguiar's.....scroll down on the Meguiar's link to see all of their pads and what each does. For my needs, the set of 3 works fine. I've also heard that 3M makes a pad that will fit the PC, but I'm not sure about that, and I've never used 3M pads. Also, you can buy pad kits from www.properautocare.com for the PC.


http://www.meguiars.com/product_show...ne=PT&SrcCat=0

Here's another site for the PC....it has some good how-to tips as well. http://store.yahoo.com/classic-motor...rcabpolac.html

Reasons for an orbital?
They work best with abrasives. If you don't use abrasives much, you won't need a PC. I do not use abrasives on my car, and thus I have never used the PC on it. I have applied Zaino with the PC on other cars, but I don't think there was any real benefit, since Zaino is nonabrasive.

They are usually much quicker and more efficient than by hand. Many abrasives, like swirl removers, compounds, paint cleaners, work much better and faster using the speed of the buffer to break the abrasives down into a finer polish the way it is intended. If you've ever used something like 3M Fine Cut Compoud by hand, you already know that it's a major PITA. By hand, it can be very hard to break the abrasive down into a fine polish and it would take forever to do a whole car this way. A buffer simply makes the abrasive do its job better than you could do by hand. Additionally, you will usually end up using a lot less product with a buffer than doing the same job by hand.

Here's another article on why machine polishing is better.... http://www.goodspeedmotoring.com/?pa...ishing_machine

The PC should not generate swirls since it's a random orbital, not a rotary. A rotary will certainly screw up the paint, if used by a novice or used improperly. The PC is a very safe buffer since it does not generate the amount of heat that a rotary will. Plus a rotary simply spins in very fast circles, whereas the PC spins in more of a figure 8, kinda like a very fast hand motion.

Mike