A guide to rotary polishing

Brazo said:
The rotary should be moved from left to right in an arc. By moving it to the right it naturally moves upwards. By moving to the left it naturally arcs downwards. This arc movement is totally different from using a PC in horizontal and vertical passes. With practice this arc movement will become second nature. The arm should move slowly and smoothly keeping the pad flat to the paint at all times. On curved panels this isn't possible so more focus on smooth non jerky arm movements is essential.
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detailingworld said:
Use your back arm to drive the polisher. When working on large flat panels, the natural motion that the rotary will want to follow typically is an arc. Try not to fight it back onto a straight line but allow the machine to do this arc and guide it backwards and forwards over the desired work area. For users coming to the rotary from a dual action polisher, this is quite different to normal – a DA requires driven and can be driven in pretty much any direction you like. The smoothest rotary operation will come from flowing with the natural movement of

the machine.
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I have used an orbital for a few years now to apply polishes, cleaner waxes, and waxes using the technique from Meguiar's G-100 guide.



I just recently purchased a rotary and I'm trying to understand the proper movement patters for a rotary. I'm having a hard time visualizing this arc pattern with the rotary buffer, which these guides try to describe. :think:



The way I read these guides is that I'm continuously moving in the rotary in a semi oval pattern and moving outwards. This pattern seems weird because it won't have even coverage. :wall



But Last weekend I tested my new rotary with ColorX (cleaner wax) on Meg's polishing pad using the old techniques I learned from for Meg's G-100 guide. I did it to my mom's 98 Honda Civic that had light, deep swirl marks from a snow brush, and light oxidation. Kept the rotary at the lowest speed setting of 1 (1000 RPMs). Took me a few minutes to really balance the rotary so the pad remains flat. But I eventually found a comfortable hand position on the D handle. Of course I inspected the paint close to sun set... looking for the infamous rotary holograms and pig tails. The surface look glossy and wet. But the really deep scratches remained as I expected. So is there anything wrong with applying my DA technique to a rotary?





Here are my questions:



Why only left to right (right to left) arc movements? Are forward and backward movements not recommended for a rotary like they are with a DA?



Both guides don't mention anything about overlap passes by 50%... why? :hairpull
 
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