From my understanding, gear driven is ideal for more industrial applications while RO is more forgiving and better for hobbyist. Did you see a significant benefits in gear driven for hobbyists and amateurs?
I would agree. RO is great for hobbyists but gear driven forced rotation is a great tool and transforms paint really well. Being a professional detailer since 2002 and enthusiast since 1991. I own two forced rotation tools and love them. sure their not rupes ones and I think the rupes is a fine one and not stupidly expensive but the ones I have do a great job.
@Dan, the biggest benefit is time savings A forced rotation unit is always correcting and very efficient. on average you can correct upwards of 40-50% faster. They are also less frustrating overall.
ms3r Agree with the "less frustrating" you mention as the pad will simply NOT "stall" out on the surface when correcting due to the GEARED or "forced" rotation of the tool - happy polishing : )
Would love one. It's just purely not viable for me cost wise as a weekend warrior who has already gotten the defects out of his car with a more budget brand of 21mm throw random orbital lol.
Hey Brandon - if by "running it full blast" you mean at the top of the tool's speed range, it could be that you are creating so much heat that it actually "melts" or at least weakens the adhesive between the rubber and plastic. There is no need to run the machine full blast - and you might actually get even better results by going in the middle of the speed range for defect removal. Happy polishing : )
The problem with Rupes is they are branding themselves the Ferrari of polishers. I get it, it's marketing at its finest. Trouble is, it's not a ferrari, it's a polisher. Saying the Harbor Freight polisher is the geo metro of polishers is a bit disingenuous. Everyone knows there are some very well known detailers who still use the Harbor Freight polishers, and they paint correct some pretty damn expensive cars with them and turn out some pretty nice results. A talented detailer will have no problem paint correcting with whatever polisher they are given. What Rupes does is they use the same marketing tactics that the majority of businesses use when selling a product. They claim they are the best, and their price is a reflection of their quality. This creates hype and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and say hey, I use the best there is, so the quality of my work will be better than joe blow over there who uses an Harbor Freight. That's simply not true. Market price is dictated by how much it costs to make a product and what people are willing to spend on that product. In the near future Rupes will be forced to come out with a more reasonably priced version of their polisher, or they will go out of business. There are some outstanding polishers on the market right now selling for less than half of a Rupes and they aren't pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into marketing. The retail industry is a tough business now that everyone has access to an endless supply of reviews online. Which is good for the consumer because you get better products at better prices. Gone are the days where you can claim to be the best just by pricing your product the highest. That being said, this looks like a great machine, but I wouldn't pay more than $300 for it.
Rupes have always been a high end brand and they've had some electrical issues over the years with some tools and other ones lasted for ages with some brush changes from time to time. There are a tonne of european manufacturers of power tools. I've researched the entire power tool market worldwide and seen every manufacturer there is like Felissati, Sparky Power Tools, Hilti, Festool, Flex, Fein (great brand), Metabo, Maffel, Proxxon and many others. However Rupes are the only company that have bothered to look really close at the detailing industry and chose to make proprietary tools for it , which I've been asking for since 2005. Everyone else has been pretty much a sander polisher machine provider for our industry.. oh your a detailer, here's a sander polisher or here's our random orbital 8mm sander you can use on cars to polish with. Gotta give credit to Rupes and Flex for what they've brought to the table for us and Makita as well for bringing the most powerful forced rotation machine on the market and their rotary which was ahead of it's time in the 1990's compared to others. it served us well until recent improvements from Flex, Fein and Rupes. Sure not everyone will want to pay the price for a bigfoot 15 or 21 and the chinese versions do a decent job but there's nothing like having the innovators tool rather than the imitators, no vibration vs a little. like comparing european foam to chinese or american foam - there is no comparison.the chinese pads might look the same but it's not. I believe the chinese can make great tools now that they own FLEX but will they? There's no stronger random orbital polisher available than the two I designed with 1500 watts output. their three times as powerful as the motor is designed especially for the job and have way more torque and is quieter but the only downside is that only rupes has truly made the random orbital mega smooth. mine is virtually the same size throw but has an older design so it's only balanced like the rupes because of the motor and gearbox in it and the anti vibration body design. without them it would be a rattlebox. If Rupes spend as much money on R & D as I hope they do then spending $500 australian on a Mille or rotary is worth it.
You’re right, Allen. Everything you say is valid here, especially for the person who only uses a polisher a few times a year. It would be silly to spend more than $300. For the people in the business of polishing every week (or every day), the Rupes machine gives you a reliable tool with the most efficient technology. The savings can be great, compared to the trial-and-error of testing/choosing different pads and compounds. Rupes, like Apple, sell a ‘system’ which works almost every time. Buying the pads/compounds in quantity means I can price the job easily, as I know what I’ll be using. I had a Rupes LHR15ES and was never completely happy with its power or performance compared to those cheaper DAs, which were often higher wattage and smoother with their smaller orbits. It almost put me off Rupes for the reasons you mention; it just didn’t seem all that special. However, the Rupes machine could sometimes deliver a great result that the others couldn’t, purely because of the pads/compounds and their suitability to certain paints. I now have a Mille machine and it immediately seems much more powerful, much more effective on all different paint types. I’m very happy with my purchase, especially as I could put the Mille into someone else’s inexperienced hands and I know that they will get good quick results without the risk of damage that a rotary would bring. If I shopped around for other machines, such as the Makita forced-rotation, I could certainly save a few bucks, but the ‘system’ saves me time that would otherwise be spent on finding all those ‘go to’ products such as Hexlogic pads and Menzerna compounds etc.
well said alex and allan. Festool have always been overpriced and to me rupes are almost as bad. The mk 1 bigfoots were way underpowered and i never bought one. My 1500 watt powered machines from germany cost me 350 and 400 and are the most powerful in the industry.
What a completely false and ignorant statement. I REALLY hope you're just joking or trolling. If not, you have no respect or understanding about the research and development that goes behind these tools. For us detailers, this is a breakthrough, an instrument of precision that helps us achieve the results we are looking for when we grab a polisher and put it to paint. You've obviously never even held one of these to say something so moronic and ignorant.
Nope. You can easily learn to use one yourself, overpriced rubbish? Please, at least actually hold one for five seconds, then you'll know what an ignorant, ridiculous statement that is.
Agree. I can't even respond to someone who states what was said above. Anyone who details or is a serious hobbiest and has used a forced rotation DA unit vs a traditional orbital would never call it rubbish. My Mille comes tomorrow and I already have several Flex 3401's that I've used for years and can't wait to see the difference.
I just bought one and I will be trying it out on gel coat. So now I have the Mille, a Mark 3 and a Nano Ibrid.
It’s an awesome tool!!!!!!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 I absolutely love this thing!!!! Extremely easy to use........
Will the Rupes Wool pads work on the Mille?
what happens when you use those pads on the DA polisher? or use that compund on the DA polisher?
From my understanding, gear driven is ideal for more industrial applications while RO is more forgiving and better for hobbyist. Did you see a significant benefits in gear driven for hobbyists and amateurs?
I would agree. RO is great for hobbyists but gear driven forced rotation is a great tool and transforms paint really well. Being a professional detailer since 2002 and enthusiast since 1991. I own two forced rotation tools and love them. sure their not rupes ones and I think the rupes is a fine one and not stupidly expensive but the ones I have do a great job.
@Dan, the biggest benefit is time savings A forced rotation unit is always correcting and very efficient. on average you can correct upwards of 40-50% faster. They are also less frustrating overall.
ms3r Agree with the "less frustrating" you mention as the pad will simply NOT "stall" out on the surface when correcting due to the GEARED or "forced" rotation of the tool - happy polishing : )
I for one am totally stoked to have me a one of these sweet units! How bout that cart tho eh??
i really like my LK900E so far, just reviewed it and compared to the Flex 3401.
Preço desta máquina lançamento
Would love one. It's just purely not viable for me cost wise as a weekend warrior who has already gotten the defects out of his car with a more budget brand of 21mm throw random orbital lol.
Nice video fellas, thanks
I need one 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Keep the overlap at 50 / 75%
Hey Brandon - if by "running it full blast" you mean at the top of the tool's speed range, it could be that you are creating so much heat that it actually "melts" or at least weakens the adhesive between the rubber and plastic. There is no need to run the machine full blast - and you might actually get even better results by going in the middle of the speed range for defect removal. Happy polishing : )
Must has the precious...
The problem with Rupes is they are branding themselves the Ferrari of polishers. I get it, it's marketing at its finest. Trouble is, it's not a ferrari, it's a polisher. Saying the Harbor Freight polisher is the geo metro of polishers is a bit disingenuous. Everyone knows there are some very well known detailers who still use the Harbor Freight polishers, and they paint correct some pretty damn expensive cars with them and turn out some pretty nice results. A talented detailer will have no problem paint correcting with whatever polisher they are given. What Rupes does is they use the same marketing tactics that the majority of businesses use when selling a product. They claim they are the best, and their price is a reflection of their quality. This creates hype and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and say hey, I use the best there is, so the quality of my work will be better than joe blow over there who uses an Harbor Freight. That's simply not true. Market price is dictated by how much it costs to make a product and what people are willing to spend on that product. In the near future Rupes will be forced to come out with a more reasonably priced version of their polisher, or they will go out of business. There are some outstanding polishers on the market right now selling for less than half of a Rupes and they aren't pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into marketing. The retail industry is a tough business now that everyone has access to an endless supply of reviews online. Which is good for the consumer because you get better products at better prices. Gone are the days where you can claim to be the best just by pricing your product the highest. That being said, this looks like a great machine, but I wouldn't pay more than $300 for it.
Rupes have always been a high end brand and they've had some electrical issues over the years with some tools and other ones lasted for ages with some brush changes from time to time. There are a tonne of european manufacturers of power tools. I've researched the entire power tool market worldwide and seen every manufacturer there is like Felissati, Sparky Power Tools, Hilti, Festool, Flex, Fein (great brand), Metabo, Maffel, Proxxon and many others. However Rupes are the only company that have bothered to look really close at the detailing industry and chose to make proprietary tools for it , which I've been asking for since 2005. Everyone else has been pretty much a sander polisher machine provider for our industry.. oh your a detailer, here's a sander polisher or here's our random orbital 8mm sander you can use on cars to polish with. Gotta give credit to Rupes and Flex for what they've brought to the table for us and Makita as well for bringing the most powerful forced rotation machine on the market and their rotary which was ahead of it's time in the 1990's compared to others. it served us well until recent improvements from Flex, Fein and Rupes. Sure not everyone will want to pay the price for a bigfoot 15 or 21 and the chinese versions do a decent job but there's nothing like having the innovators tool rather than the imitators, no vibration vs a little. like comparing european foam to chinese or american foam - there is no comparison.the chinese pads might look the same but it's not. I believe the chinese can make great tools now that they own FLEX but will they? There's no stronger random orbital polisher available than the two I designed with 1500 watts output. their three times as powerful as the motor is designed especially for the job and have way more torque and is quieter but the only downside is that only rupes has truly made the random orbital mega smooth. mine is virtually the same size throw but has an older design so it's only balanced like the rupes because of the motor and gearbox in it and the anti vibration body design. without them it would be a rattlebox. If Rupes spend as much money on R & D as I hope they do then spending $500 australian on a Mille or rotary is worth it.
You’re right, Allen. Everything you say is valid here, especially for the person who only uses a polisher a few times a year. It would be silly to spend more than $300.
For the people in the business of polishing every week (or every day), the Rupes machine gives you a reliable tool with the most efficient technology. The savings can be great, compared to the trial-and-error of testing/choosing different pads and compounds. Rupes, like Apple, sell a ‘system’ which works almost every time. Buying the pads/compounds in quantity means I can price the job easily, as I know what I’ll be using.
I had a Rupes LHR15ES and was never completely happy with its power or performance compared to those cheaper DAs, which were often higher wattage and smoother with their smaller orbits. It almost put me off Rupes for the reasons you mention; it just didn’t seem all that special. However, the Rupes machine could sometimes deliver a great result that the others couldn’t, purely because of the pads/compounds and their suitability to certain paints.
I now have a Mille machine and it immediately seems much more powerful, much more effective on all different paint types. I’m very happy with my purchase, especially as I could put the Mille into someone else’s inexperienced hands and I know that they will get good quick results without the risk of damage that a rotary would bring.
If I shopped around for other machines, such as the Makita forced-rotation, I could certainly save a few bucks, but the ‘system’ saves me time that would otherwise be spent on finding all those ‘go to’ products such as Hexlogic pads and Menzerna compounds etc.
well said alex and allan. Festool have always been overpriced and to me rupes are almost as bad. The mk 1 bigfoots were way underpowered and i never bought one. My 1500 watt powered machines from germany cost me 350 and 400 and are the most powerful in the industry.
Flex have this for years. so why buy rupes and not flex?
ck my video on my channel i discuss both and own both. both great machines but very different.
Have seen it, and like it
Zaebitls
Scrap👎🏻
What a completely false and ignorant statement. I REALLY hope you're just joking or trolling. If not, you have no respect or understanding about the research and development that goes behind these tools. For us detailers, this is a breakthrough, an instrument of precision that helps us achieve the results we are looking for when we grab a polisher and put it to paint. You've obviously never even held one of these to say something so moronic and ignorant.
Lol....need an academy to use this over priced rubbish 😞
Nope. You can easily learn to use one yourself, overpriced rubbish? Please, at least actually hold one for five seconds, then you'll know what an ignorant, ridiculous statement that is.
Agree. I can't even respond to someone who states what was said above. Anyone who details or is a serious hobbiest and has used a forced rotation DA unit vs a traditional orbital would never call it rubbish. My Mille comes tomorrow and I already have several Flex 3401's that I've used for years and can't wait to see the difference.
Its called a rotary...morons. Does circles around any gay mille or 3401. Problem is...everyone is too fearful to use it correctly.