Nothing makes a Marine Corps rifle range instructor more nervous that a new recruit with an M16 rifle locked and loaded. That goes a long way in explaining why boot camp recruits “dry fire” the first week on the range. They just repetitively aim at the target and squeeze the trigger of an empty rifle. The theory is, if you don’t give them ammunition, nobody gets hurt.
Same goes for professionals who operate their own auto detailing shop. The last thing they need is a new employee wielding a 3,000-rpm rotary buffer near their customer’s automobiles. That’s because a rotary polisher is one of those tools you can’t just pick up and start going postal on a vehicle’s paint job. It can be a dangerous tool without proper training and experience.
And that’s where the Flex XC3401VRG dual-action polisher comes into play. Rotary buffers can run between 600 to 3,000 rpms, which can easily burn through a car’s clear coat and paint — not to mention leave some pretty nasty swirl marks. But with the Flex dual-action polisher (a/k/a the Flex DA), there’s no fear of leaving swirl designs or torching your way through the paint.
This gentle beast is designed to protect your client’s paint while offering some light paint correction. There will be times when you need the impact of a rotary polisher to level the clear coat, but that’s why you have a powerful rotary — kept high on a shelf, away from the new guy. But in most instances, the Flex DA is perfect when you need to do slight compounding and paint correction.
When it comes to orbital polishers like the Porter Cable and Cyclo Polishers, this pair of tools work in a random, free-rotating motion meant to simulate hand polishing, but at a much faster rate. The Flex DA rotates and oscillates in a forced circular motion instead of freely rotating, which allows it to level and cut down the clear cut, thus doing more intensive work while still being safe for new hires to use. And it leaves no swirl marks — just like a free-rotating orbital.
If you’re beginning to sense a theme here, it’s this: The Flex DA is the perfect tool for someone who may not have much — or any professional auto detailing experience. It was designed to be impervious to creating swirls and torching paint, and it is the go-to tool for a newbie to practice and learn paint correction without you concerning yourself over damage to your customer’s prized automobile.
And you’ll soon find that you’re using the Flex dual-action polisher on a regular basis instead of picking up your rotary or orbital polishers. That’s because this tool can kick it up to 480 rpms and down to as low as 160 rpms, which pretty much covers most of your paint correcting and protection requirements with just one handy tool.
