Orbital Buffing Substitute

[ragingfish]

Ok.I don't have access to an orbital buffer. But hand waxing coating my car is becoming extremely tiring and difficult.Is there such a thing as an attachment for a standard drill that mimics orbital buffers and I could use to wax and coat my car, or am I SOL unless I get an orbital?Thanx...

[Vibe Rater]

Sure, you could attach a buffer pad to your standard drill, but I suspect the risk of burning through your clear coat would be very high. Even with a genuine random orbit waxer/buffer there is a very real risk of burning through if you're not careful. I think you may live to regret going the cheaper route of a drill attachment.

[ragingfish]

What would a decent, but not top-of-the-line, orbital buffer run approximately?

[Stang2Vibe]

Probably around the $30-$40 range would get you in the door. Like Vibe-Rater said before, you have to be extremely careful using any type of power tool to buff out your car. You also need to use quality products. There are buffing pad attachments for the drill, but most drills will spin at too high RPM's for buffing the car. You will burn the clearcoat or just go right through it. Orbital buffers generally spin slower because of this and are safer for the "novice" user. The buffer I use at work is just a Craftsman buffer/polisher that looks like a slightly modified electric grinder. It has the handgrip so you can use both hands for more control. I think they run about $50 at Sears. But again, you will ruin the finish if you don't know what you are doing. I happen to dislike orbital buffers because they have always left swirl marks in the paint for me. And they sling wet wax everywhere, so I would suggest applying the wax by hand and using the buffer just to remove it after it dries. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you have a good idea of what you are doing when using a power buffer on your car.

[Lancer]

Walmart has orbital buffers for under $20.

[ragingfish]

quote:Walmart has orbital buffers for under $20.Decent ones?

[Vibe Rater]

Ya know, I just used my new WEN 6" random orbital buffer (40 bucks Canadian) on my 7 year old Nissan King Cab 4x4. I used Mothers Scratch Remover first to help remove 7 years of grime from the paint before applying the wax (Mothers paste wax). I can honestly say that I don't believe the electric device saved me any time at all. Sure the result may be a little better than if I had done it all by hand, but don't expect to zip through the job in half the time or anything like that. The buffer disc spins very little unless you take the pressure right off of it. It's more of a vibrating buffer than rotating. This helps to prevent burnthroughs. I'm very happy with the result and was never close to burning through the clearcoat at any time, but it still took me a long while to finish the job.

[ragingfish]

I'm not necessarily looking for something to make it FASTER...rather something that is easier. I tire very easily when doing it by hand...and having to do a clay bar, and then a sealer/glaze, and THEN a wax coat, it poops me out!So I'm just looking for something to take all that repetetive fatigue out of the process, y'know?Plus, it might do it more consistently than me...less missed spots, or places where I was more thorough vs. places where i was tired so it wasn't done so well...

[joatmon]

someone here was waxing cars at a low price, maybe you need to hook up with them.

[Stang2Vibe]

That was GT_03. He was helping out an elderly neighbor.

[GT_03]

Yes, i was

[Shadow Realm]

Autozone and places like that sell them for $30-50. That's where I picked mine up at. It works good. I use a flat head screw driver to clean it with. What you do is, turn the buffer on and lightly put the end of the screw driver to the pad from the inner part to the outer part until it pulls the excess wax etc off the pad. You'll get build-up on the pad pretty quick so I do this after every use and sometimes even duing the middle of the wax job too.Shadow Realm

[ragingfish]

Could a orbital buffer be used to polish glass as well, or is that a whole different tool? I'd like to polish down the windshield and rear glass to remove that "etching" that occurs at the edges of the wiper blades...