Budget polishing machine

Soldato
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https://www.aldi.co.uk/ferrex-20v-cordless-polisher/p/802107398152200

I polish both the Mrs's and my own cars twice per year, by hand, and I wonder what those of you who know about polishing machines think about the above item.

For £30 I'm willing to take a punt. I have Ferrex garden equipment which does an acceptable job, so I already have the battery and charger.

My main concern, and probably the reason I've hand polished for all these years, is making the car look worse rather than better by damaging the paintwork.

So my questions are:

1. How easy is it go get the hang of machine polishing.

2. Is this item ok for light use, 4 times per year?

Thanks
 
Soldato
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Pretty much useless for any sort of real correction I'm afraid - all it will do is make it mildly easier to remove what you have done / could do by hand (might even be worse than doing it properly by hand)

If you want to machine polish you need something that can get up a reasonable amount of speed / heat combined with the right pads. Cheapest used to be the likes of a DAS6 (which can hit around double the rpm) for somewhere around £70+ pads/polish but been a while since I've looked
 
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Caporegime
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That looks like a buffer to me, not what you want for actually polishing. More for buffing off wax.

You want a DA or dual-action polisher.

You can get a cheapy for about £50.
 
Associate
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Just bite the bullet and buy a machine polisher. Been doing it for years by hand and its a waste of time. Never does owt really does it?

Bought the vonhaus 1 off amazon for 90quid and used it on my black car, first go and it came out amazing. Well worth it. Also came with 4 pads and a carry case.
 
Caporegime
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I wouldn't recommend a Vonhaus one.

Their power tools are badly made cheaper than cheap crap. Im amazed they charged £90 for a machine polisher? Would expect one from them to be half that.

£90 is DAS6 money, and they are excellent.
 
Soldato
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I was using one of these last week when I was "helping" the detailer correct my Caravelle: https://www.in2detailing.co.uk/products/in2detailing-da8-900w-dual-action-machine-polisher

Now I'm no professional, but this felt nicer than my own one, which I thought was decent enough being a Meguires G220 V2, which has since been replaced by the MT220, which sells for around £280. I think the 220 V2 was around £180 new or something.

I am considering selling my 220 to get one of the in2detailing ones, partly because it has a much longer cable on it (handy), and the hope I would get nearly as much for selling the G220 to pay for this anyway. We will see.

But yeah, I quite enjoy machine polishing, but it depends on what you are wanting to achieve as to whether it's worth it. You can hand polish a car MUCH quicker than you do with a machine. BUT, you will significantly better results with the machine. But it'll also cost you more. Rather than just applying polish with some microfibre block or cloth or puck by hand, once you get into it, you realise the different steps involved to do what you want to do. So you end up with 2-4 different grades of pad (£10-12 each), plus corresponding polish for each pad / stage. And then you go from spending a couple hours polishing your car, to a couple days (granted, you might only spend that couple days every couple years). And then you think that because you have spent the time polishing it properly, you might as well protect it properly too. So that's either another couple hours with a wax a couple times a year, at £25+ per tin. Or you go for a ceramic coating that'll last years. But sting you £90.

Of course, you may avoid that slippery slope I didn't manage to avoid.
 
Caporegime
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Meh works fine, same specs.
I haven't tried the DA polisher but I bought a battery impact and a 240v impact from them and neither could undo wheel bolts which I could undo with a short breaker bar, and the 240v one got so hot it burned my hand. :p

The return and refund process was pain free though so I'll give them that. :D

I actually bought them by accident after watching CarThrottle use and abuse some tools in a video and recommend them as a budget option, they were using Einhell, I somehow got that mixed up with Vonhaus.
 
Soldato
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Depends what you're trying to achieve, hand polishing will just be using filler products which just cover up the blemishes. A cheap orbital polisher will make it a quicker process than by hand for sure.

Dual action polisher on the other hand you will be removing the blemishes with a compound product
 
Caporegime
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You can compound by hand, I've done it, but its not advised if you like having arm muscles that work properly. I turned my whole bonnet from matte pink to shiny red by hand before I decided that I didn't wish to continue... :p
 
Soldato
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You can hand polish a car MUCH quicker than you do with a machine. BUT, you will significantly better results with the machine. But it'll also cost you more. Rather than just applying polish with some microfibre block or cloth or puck by hand, once you get into it, you realise the different steps involved to do what you want to do. So you end up with 2-4 different grades of pad (£10-12 each)

what he said,
I imported 110v porter cable 7424, and from uk a ~£30 down transformer,
but for applying the AG SRP, I typically use, is is so much faster by hand, some bits have to be done by hand anyway,
with PC, I end up using more product, use more pads that have to then be cleaned more laboriously, as opposed, to, pretty much, a single cloth, turning it over etc.
 
Soldato
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Yea it does take all day to do it properly with a DA polisher.

If you pick up a car which has swirls all over it, its good for a first polish. But using it regularly is a chore and not worth it unless its a show car. Plus cutting the paint regularly probably isnt a good idea.
 
Soldato
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I’m no expert but isn’t it the case that you don’t really want to be machine polishing that often because you’re actually taking a thin layer of the paint/lacquer off?
 
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Old car I had was badly swirled, cost me about £200 for a DAS 6 plus various polishes, pads and appropriate sized backing plates.

Managed to completely remove 99% of the swirls and it looked great for the next two years of ownership, did not need to machine polish it again with a proper washing routine. Took me two days of work!
 
Soldato
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I’m no expert but isn’t it the case that you don’t really want to be machine polishing that often because you’re actually taking a thin layer of the paint/lacquer off?

Yes, kinda. You certainly don't want to be cutting it very often. But you can use the polisher to apply very light / no cut polishes just to add gloss. You don't always need to be cutting the lacquer. But again, that's a different pad and polish. Once you have done the initial polish, you're better to just keep on top of the protection, be that wax, sealant, or ceramic coating.

I do enjoy doing it though. I must admit. I just don't do it very often. My Caravelle took a week to do , all in. And that was with me "helping" the detailer. My own, more regular sized cars, I'm usually looking at 2 days with the polisher to do properly when I first get the car. Then once a year maybe, depending on what protection I use, another day to get the glossy polish done.
 
Soldato
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Like others have said the one you've linked isn't a good investment. Had one years ago and it was a waste of time.

I now have something very similar to this:
https://www.toolstation.com/bauker-...m_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed

Seems to be lots of brands that make them and all the same base unit. I also swapped out the backing plate to a flexible backing plate from cleanyourcar and have been really happy with it.

I'd definitely be buying a DA polisher if you do it twice a year, it's both quicker/easier and gives better results. Most of the decent polishes also need the heat of a DA/rotary polisher to break down properly.
 
Soldato
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My machine polishing guide on the MCM Forum, if it is any help.
interesting - particularly the low price ebay pads option .. how cheap can you go ?
nonetheless, like you imply, I've not found you can clean and continue using (good) pads during a session ... a soapy bucket of hot water, but, you have to wait for them to dry.

Technique is pretty much what I've used with meguiars 83.
 
Caporegime
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interesting - particularly the low price ebay pads option .. how cheap can you go ?
nonetheless, like you imply, I've not found you can clean and continue using (good) pads during a session ... a soapy bucket of hot water, but, you have to wait for them to dry.

Technique is pretty much what I've used with meguiars 83.

I bought 10 for £13 on eBay and they seem fine. 5" ones, a mixture of hard and medium.

When my pad is caked in polish I submerge it in clean water and work it with my thumbs, rinse it, squeeze the water out by folding it over on itself, put it back on the DA, hold it at arms length, and switch it on. The centrifugal force of the polisher spinning then throws out the majority of the water held in the pad. After doing that I find that it is sufficiently dry to continue using straight away.

I'm not sure where I picked this up from, but it works for me. It might not be good for the longevity of the pad, but I don't think the pad being slightly damp will affect its performance in use.

I know some people prefer to run the pad against a microfibre cloth or a medium bristled brush to clean out the pores mid session, I haven't personally tried that, and I might do next time.
 
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