3 Hacks for Rotary Polishing!

- Today, we're talking rotary machines,

the most basic and necessary tool when detailing.

Did you know you can utilize this tool

in three different ways to get a swirls free finish?

Fall along in today's video, we'll show you how it's done.

(upbeat music)

Hi guys, Michael here with Marine Detail Supply.

We're obviously out of the shop today here

at Port 32 Marina in Tampa Bay,

working on this Contender 24 bay.

Super nice black hole, but not looking so nice.

Today, we're using the rotary polisher by DeWalt.

This is my go-to tool.

I've had this tool for seven years,

and today we're gonna show you

three techniques with this tool.

I am utilizing a single-sided lake country backing plate

seven and a half by two inch for anybody who's curious

with a seven inch Lake Country backing plate,

links will be in the description below.

First, for anybody that doesn't know about rotaries,

they're used mainly for compounding.

But what I wanna go over today

is what most people skip out on when it comes to rotaries.

These tools can also be used

to refine the surface a little bit,

and get a little bit more clarity out of the gel coat.

If you're good and you master this,

you can almost get a swirl-free finish with just this tool.

I wanna mention this because a lot of people

don't think it's possible, but it definitely is.

Let's dive in to the first technique.

So the first technique I wanna go over

is just basic compounding

with either a heavy compound or a medium cut compound.

For this boat, we've got a lot of scratching right here,

a lot of oxidation built up over here.

It's a black hole, so you see everything on this.

I'm gonna go ahead and cut with Level-R

with a single-sided white wool pad.

You can also use a yellow wool pad

if you're gonna be compounding.

That's just a less aggressive wool.

So you can use a less aggressive compound like Elevate

or Restructure, which doesn't have as much abrasive in it.

When it comes to compounding,

you wanna take this nice and slow.

I always see people going way too fast with the machine.

And that leads to splotches, patches.

People will ask, hey,

why do I have discoloration alongside of the hole

after I've compounded it?

Well, you didn't hold the machine in the spot long enough

to remove all that oxidation, dirt and grime.

Gel coat is porous, unlike paint,

so it holds onto a lot of dirt.

You can go more aggressive with it

and get better results that way.

So I'm gonna show you how to compound correctly.

And then I'm also gonna show you how not to compound.

Okay, so the correct way to compound

is going to be obviously put enough compound

on the surface to start.

I've already soaked this pad, so it's pretty good.

This machine utilizes a soft touch,

so it won't spin everywhere,

and you can kinda just spread the material out with the pad.

Once you've done it, spread out, nice, slow and consistent.

On this machine, it's so old, it's rubbed off,

I think it's like 600 or 800 speed.

I often keep it there most of the time.

The machine is heavy and it will wear you out,

but it's a work horse.

It's definitely what we need

to put a lot of this oxidation and dirt out.

What you don't wanna do is take the compound,

squirt it on here, spread it all out.

You can spread this like this by the way,

but you don't wanna do this.

Sling the compound, working in like this, 'cause guess what?

We're not staying consistent,

we're not covering a certain area

for a certain amount of time,

and not being consistent is gonna give you splotchy results,

patchiness, get a lot of guys come into the shop.

They're like, I can't get this to look right.

I've compounded it with this and that.

And really just comes to user error.

So do not move the machine like that.

Do not put your speed up to 3000, 2000.

Also don't hold the machine like this where it's hopping,

that is the incorrect way to hold the machine.

You want to keep it flat

with a little slight angle to the right.

(machine engine revving)

That way when you move,

you work with the machine, you let the tool do the work

instead of fighting the machine.

'Cause if you fight the machine, you see what happens.

So nice and slow, consistent.

Consistency is key.

Now that we've finished out with level R,

just basic compounding with a white single-sided wool pad,

we're going to move to our blue hybrid pad.

This pad is made by Lake Country.

Seven inch, lamb's wool blended with foam.

So you're going to get a cutting pad

that also has the qualities of a polishing pad.

That is why we're gonna utilize it with Elevate.

And what you'll do is same thing.

Go ahead and soak up your pad, prime it up,

spread it over the surface, nice and even,

and then you're going to do the exact same thing

that you did in your basic compounding step.

But once you get the compound worked in,

you're gonna turn up the heat.

When we turn up the heat,

what we're doing is we're getting the surface

a little bit hotter so that we can cut out

some of those scratches that are already in the gel coat

and kinda melt them down.

Gel coat is colored resin,

for those of you that don't know what it actually is.

But if you've done any kind of fiberglass repair with Epoxy

or a polyester resin, it's similar to that, but it's color.

First thing that's sprayed in the mold on most boats,

and it is extremely thick for the most part.

It's more forgiving than paint.

Paint is less forgiving because it's so thin.

But once we get this work in,

we're gonna turn up the heat on it.

(machine engine revving)

Kinda melt down the gel.

You know who actually taught me to skateboard,

I'm gonna coin it, is Conrad Peterson.

Which if you don't know him,

he does phenomenal work on super yachts.

Everything that I know I've learned through experience

and dealing with a lot of other detailers in the industry.

This is one of my favorite techniques.

You can grab a microfiber and wipe this down.

You can see how glossy that is.

Once you touch elevate to it,

just gives it a super deep rich look,

especially on these black boats, these are my favorite.

We're gonna finish the rest of this with Elevate,

up in this area, a little back here, a little over here,

and then we'll move to our third technique

using a polishing pad or wax or sealant removal pad.

This is a Presta double-sided pad.

It's synthetic blended wool, and it's extremely soft.

So it should not cause any scratching on the surface.

I use this pad sometimes to remove wax,

and I also use it in this case to polish.

For this step or using ignition,

this can cut 1500 scratches out,

and it also will remove swirls.

What you're gonna do is

you'll put the product on the surface,

same way we do with every other product.

Saturate the pad and then you'll work it in slow.

I don't wanna create any more holograms or scratches,

so just gonna work this in really nice,

slow and consistent, maybe turn it up just a hair.

We don't wanna put anymore heat or speed into this

because we kind of removed from the hologram

and it's hard to see on camera, but you can still see it.

So I'm just showing you guys how to get away

with not having to buy a random orbital,

a 15 millimeter, a 21 millimeter, or a forced rotation.

If you're beginning and you just wanna test the waters,

you can get by with a rotary.

Many people do, and they don't even know

that that's not the only machine they should be using.

But it is possible to get by with just a rotary,

but you have to know what you're doing.

And it's really important

to use the right pad with the right product.

That's majority of the battle.

The other is just technique.

And once you master that, you'll be ready to go.

So I am going to finish the rest of this out with ignition

and the double-sided wool pad and ready for some ceiling.

So that's it guys.

Even though a rotary machine

is typically just used for compounding,

I showed you a couple of different ways

that you can utilize a machine

for finishing compound or polishing.

I encourage you just to try different things.

There isn't one way to skin a cat in this game.

Some people have different ways of doing things,

but any of these pads will accomplish similar results

with the right product.

So just keep that in mind when you're on a project

and you're not getting the results you need.

Try something different,

and the gel coat might respond a little bit differently.

As always, thank you guys for watching.

If you got any kinda value out of this video,

please give it a thumbs up.

Also smash that subscribe button.

We look forward to making future videos for you guys.

If you have any questions about the techniques

that we used today, drop a comment down below,

we'll answer those and also follow us on Instagram

@Marinedetailsupplytampabay,

any of these products can also be found there as well.

I'm Michael Marino, Marine Detail Supply.

I'll see you guys in the next video.

(upbeat music)