Orbital Kit 101 Part 2: Accessories

So you’ve ordered your polisher and feel a sense of special power soon to hit your fingertips. You need to equip the orbital polisher with the right backing plate & foam pad setup. Essential components of your setup should include:

- at least 3 to 5 pads of varying grades and textures

- maybe a new velcro backing plate depending on what comes with the polisher

There are a ton of foam pads out on the market and grades are confusing as ever since manufacturers mix color types. A basic principle to understand for pad size is the smaller the pad, the greater the aggressiveness. Since the pad has less surface area to touch the surface, the machine’s ability to be stronger and far more aggressive increases. So small pad = more power & less coverage, bigger pad = less power & more coverage. For backing plates (BP) measurements are pretty easy to understand: a 3.5 inch gets 4 inch pads, 5 inch gets 5.5 inch pads, and 6 inch gets 6.5 inch pads/7.5 inch pads. Let’s start with the backing plate first by breaking it down with each polisher.

Orbital Kit 101 Part 1: Buffer Choices

A Beginner’s Orbital Kit

Purpose: No more general threads asking what orbital kit to buy or confusion over basic accessories such as the backing plate & pad dilemmas.

This is not a definitive guide on the different backing plates, buffing pads, and polishers. Its a guide to get you started seriously on Machine Buffing. Orbitals are safe, easy to learn,  and achieve more than what your meek arms can handle. Somewhere in your head you think that purchasing this orbital set will allow you to do Professional work on more than one vehicle down the road.