Question about polishing features.

[colinw]

Dan Clark has two very informative threads about polishing vehicles

http://www.talkfestool.com/vb/other-projects/1873-polishing-your-car-rotex-part-1-a.html

http://www.talkfestool.com/vb/other-projects/1874-polishing-your-car-rotex-part-2-a.html

I hope you guys find these useful

Colin

 

[ForumMFG]

My dealer is telling me that I have to buy a 5 pack of sheep skin because that is how it is sold.  Does anyone have an extra sheep skin they can sell or any dealer here have an extra?

 

[tbellemare]

Dave:

Festool sheepskins are sold singly (150mm) or as a 5-pack (125mm).

I don't know why that is?

Tom

 

[ForumMFG]

Do you have a open box?  I know dealers can buy a 5 pack, open it and sell individually.

 

[tbellemare]

'Sorry, Dave, but I don't. Maybe another dealer here does...

Tom

 

[Bob Marino]

Do you have a open box?  I know dealers can buy a 5 pack, open it and sell individually.

Dave,

I happen to have an open box - let me know. Sent an email.

Bob

 

[ForumMFG]

Bob, I''ll take one.  I'll respond to you by e-mail tomorrow.  You sent it to my work e-mail address.

 

[tbellemare]

Tom, the polishing pad would be a good idea for the felt polishing pads, which is why I bought it. The foam polishing pads and sheep skin pads I'd be willing to bet the regular pad would be fine.

I was thinking about this, Brice, and there is another reason to use the polishing pad...

It is smaller in diameter (130 mm vs. 145-147 mm) so with a sponge, it gives you an overhanging annulus of 10 mm radius. The sponges are 150 mm.

Tom

 

[Brice Burrell]

Tom, the polishing pad would be a good idea for the felt polishing pads, which is why I bought it. The foam polishing pads and sheep skin pads I'd be willing to bet the regular pad would be fine.

I was thinking about this, Brice, and there is another reason to use the polishing pad...

It is smaller in diameter (130 mm vs. 145-147 mm) so with a sponge, it gives you an overhanging annulus of 10 mm radius. The sponges are 150 mm.

Tom

Okay, any thoughts on why you'd want overhang?

 

[tbellemare]

If you want to get in a tight space and use the edge of the sponge.

Say you were polishing a car and you were doing the grill or some other spot where you kind of have to squeeze in. You want to be certain the the pad doesn't touch, only the sponge.

Tom

 

[woodshopdemos]

An interesting thread.

One thing that I can add: YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE A SHEEPSKIN BONNET.

They are imposible to clean but would be used with final paste wax application. Soft or hard felt pad wil do job better. Actually, if you use a good compound and/or clay cleaning, the ginal wax job can be manual to apply wax, then manual to reove wax and start polishong and then use RO 150 or 125 with soft felt to do final buffing.

As to question of Festool buffing compounds: they had three and I have them and have used them. Festool USA thought that the price would be too great considering the shipping and import costs. I agree. There are so many good products. I use Menzerna, Mothers, 3M and Dupont. Find one that works and use it -- it is too easy to start tryng them all.

An idea: go to a auto scrap yard and get a door panel, preferably a black one. And go crazy polishing it. Black can be the hardest color to polish but it also the best color to hone your skills. When you are good, black will give you a perfect mirror image with no swirls.

 

[ForumMFG]

John,

Are you referring to waxing a car?

 

[Tezzer]

Dave, dont you ever sleep ;D

 

[ForumMFG]

Of course,  I sit at my desk 60% of the day at work and then I have a computer in my shop and in my home so it's very easy to stay in tune with this message board.  It only takes a minute to read a new post and respond. So I figure why not check it all the time, it's something I like to do. 

The other 40% of my day is supporting our shop guys/installers and monitoring our jobsites.

 

[woodshopdemos]

John,

Are you referring to waxing a car?

In tht specific, I was..but I have found it applies to wood finishing as well. What was your take?

 

[ForumMFG]

I thought you were referring to car polishing applications.  If it works for wood, I'll have to try it because I did something completely different.  I just used a paste wax after I put coats of danish oil on.  I then buffed it with my sheep skin on my RO and I can't get the wax to polish.  It's at a nice shean now but when I applied the wax I used a cotton rag to do so.  I applied it in a circular motion.  You can still see how I applied the wax you know what I mean?  I can't remove that.

 

[woodshopdemos]

You should be able to remove it with mineral spirits. Once gone, apply the wax and immediately use clean rag (Tee shirt) to smooth the wax  over. You will remove most of the wax but that is OK. Then let it dry and buff out either by hand with a clean rag or using the RO and a felt pad. I personally do not like the sheepskin bonnets. They load up to fast and are not easy to clean.