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Not at all true - pairing the BigFoot polishers up with the right pad/polish combo and its perfectly capable of ripping out sanding marks up to 1500 on most paints. The only real advantage a forced rotation machine is going to give you is no stall on deep curves or contours, but thats a issue we addressed with the mark II. In terms of correcting power I'd happily race anyone heads up on a panel Flex v. BigFoot and show that there is virtually no difference in the correction speed/capability. There are a multitude of advantages to a free spinning random orbital polisher, but we can get more into that later in this discussion.
Not necessarily - orbit size has more to do with distance traveled and how that correlates to correcting power, not necessarily area covered. It does 'sweep' a wider area though, so there is that added benefit of coverage, but its not the primary advantage of the system.
The 15 is intended as a detailing tool, the 21 is intended more in body shops and applications where you're focused on sanding marks all day. In terms of correcting power the 15 and 21 are very close - while the 21 does have the larger orbit (more distance traveled in the same amount of time) the 15 makes up the gap in a higher top speed - and as I've covered in videos before the smaller pad will increase cutting power.
The answer to 'what tool should I get' is actually on the tool itself - the LHR15's have the word "DETAILING" printed in gold script right on the head. The LHR21's do not.
This is not to say you can't/shouldn't use the 21 for detailing, just that the 15 in our 'official factory opinion' is the better detailing tool.
The lateral stresses a large orbit tools put on foam pads is intense... imagine what happens as a pad is smashed between paint and a plate and is then thrust back and forth 250% of the distance any of your current tools? Even with the original version you could very quickly shorten pad life with bad technique and the incorrect type of foam will also have issues.
Our factory foams are a rigid material designed to maximize energy transfer and minimize lateral deflection.
We recommend the Mark II tools to run in the middle speed ranges (3-4) which is what they're optimized for, but when you encounter a surface with a deep curve/contour or a scratch in an isolated area you simply ramp up to max speed for that zone and then slow back down for the regular work. Its really quite logical b/c traditionally you run all tools at max speed, but what happens when that isn't enough? You can't go to speed 7 or 8... this makes the tool more versatile.
I would steer you towards the Mark II tools if you're trying to replace your flex - the increased power is going to give you a tool that is more in line with what you're used to for correcting power.
It'll be a year ago in August. No hard feelings on this side. I love this new position and I get to work along side and with some of the most talented detailers and brilliant minds in our industry. Truly a dream job. Not to mention the travel benefits of working for an Italian based company - I leave for Rome at the end of the month
Again - by design and also a large percentage of user error.
Bingo! We still have a lot of education to get into the market on how to properly use the tools - while the US is very active in terms of detailing we also have a lot of ham-fisted operators who apply "porter cable" style technique to a tool that demands a completely different approach.
As explained above - and I'll add the analogy to explain your question:
Why have a car capable of going 160mph if it doesn't need to be used at that? You might as well get a 2 cylinder car that maxes out at 60mph.
Just like the need to have more hp in a car to get up to freeway speed or passing speed its necessary to have a tool that operates at the mid-point as 'normal' and then has higher speeds when they're needed.
As I touched on above - what do you do now when the max speed on your polisher isn't enough? You can't turn the dial to 7. You end up trying more aggressive pads and compounds or more passes. What if all you needed to do was ramp up the speed to fix that spot then you could (without even shutting the machine off) slow back down to normal speed and continue with the average work? Thats the concept - its passing slow moving cars on the highway. Punching it to get around them and then going back to cruising speed.
ocdrifter got a reaction from DREWBUSH in Checking in from Orange County CA
ocdrifter got a reaction from BRC in Removing Dealer Brand Sticker
