Recommend me a good random orbital buffer
 

As the title states, I'm looking to purchase a random orbital buffer, today or tomorrow. I don't want to cheap out, but don't have an unlimited budget, either. Will a Craftsman one work or should I look for something better? Recommendations are appreciated. Also, what sort of pads should I get? I plan on using this for a few cars in the garage so I assume I should have different pads for different cars. :thanks:

Get the griots 6 inch. Look at wisdomdetail.ca for pads and accessories. Larry is a good friend of mine.

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If you want a dual action polisher then Griots, Porter cable and Meguiars. Can't go wrong with any of those. They run roughly around 100-150 dollars and you would have to buy the pads on top of that.

I personally have the Meguiars DA and it works great. For cutting action such as restoring scratched up paint you may want the polishing pads. For applying wax, the finishing pads work well because it is softer.

I never used or heard too much about the craftsman buffer so I cant comment too much on it. I may be wrong but it probably doesn't have variable speeds so you can significant restoration on the paint, if that's what your goal is. I think its mainly just to apply wax and polishes. If I were you I'd save up and spend a little more on a dual action polisher as mentioned above. It'll last you a long time and you won't regret it.

I've had the Porter Cable for about 8 years. Great little machine. Thinking about getting the Griots small buffer soon for the tighter spaces. Hard to go wrong with the PC, Megs, or Griots buffers.

Thanks guys! I'll check out Griots; I was thinking of getting some of their cleaning/maintenance products anyways :w00t:

Follow Bryan's advice on that one.
If you are in the US, order Buff n Shine pads from autodetailingsolutions.net
If you are in Canada, follow what Bryan said.

Just in case you haven't bough it yet...

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22253

Reason for selling?

one an amazon you recommend please?

Festool here

I bought one to polish the car, and a second one to use Griot's polish/wax removal pads without having to keep changing pads all the time.

BUT, now my work situation has changed, and I will not have time to Wax the car as often as thought, so it is sitting unused in my garage.

The Orbital is freaking good (I am keeping the other one I have). It is very forgiving, leaves no swirlmarks at all, variable speed which not all have and extremely easy to use.

Excellent. November is a painfully slow month for sales so I don't know if I can scrape up the bucks, but I'll let you know. Good deal!

No problem, I priced it to move fast so let's see what happens.

Look at the Porter Cable (PC for short) 7424xp.


Note: Its says 6inch but it ships with a 5inch counter weight for 5.5 inch pads.

thanks

gmookher, I second the recommendation for the Porter Cable 7424XP Variable Speed Polisher. Currently on Amazon for $112 bucks and with prime, free shipping.

As for pads I've tried a few, but just ordered the Adam's Premium Porter Cable Polishing Pad Kit that includes a backing plate, 4 pads, and some APC from Amazon as well.

Here's a video showing both the recommended polisher and pads in action:

http://youtu.be/0a0TFZT8Hyk

I got this at a great deal, came with the velco backing pad and bag, under $90 if you time it right. I'm pretty sure it's the same as the Megs one.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OIBRCQ/ref=oh_details_o03_s03_i02"]Amazon.com: Shurhold 3100 Dual Action Polisher: Automotive[/ame]

Porter Cable here too... my father just ordered me a factory reconditioned one from Home Depot for $89. I got my counterweight and pad stuff from Autogeek for my last one.

The reason why I need a new one was that I got impatient and accidentally fried my last one by using too much pressure, you don't want to use more than the weight of the polisher itself.