I got my Flex DA from Phil at DD during his last sale and today I had a chance to do a test spot on my Dakota. I taped off a section and tried the Flex with PO85 RD and a 6.5 flat LC Black finishing pad. It was on a vertical section on the door. It had a few light swirls but trying something not very aggressive. My first reaction was this machine is much heavier. When I first turned it on at slow speed against the paint I noticed this machine was serious business compared to my UDM. It immediately demanded attention (holding it down and forcing the desired direction) thanks to its counter rotating backing plate. I am sure if I did more today I would have some sore arm muscles. It did not seem to like changing directions (angular momentum?) and going over curved panels as readily. With the UDM, you could almost get bored, not with the Flex. When working on vertical sections, I think it is important to find a comfortable position to hold it firmly against the paint. Even after one a generous amount of polish on the pad since I primed it, it did not take that long for it to break down. With the UDM, it seemed to take forever to get PO85 to break down and the going clear transitioned happened very quickly (more noticeable) as opposed to "is it there yet?" on the UDM. Just like in the movies... Also, I had noticed little difference with PO85 with UDM in terms of finish improvement or correction (maybe never broke down enough) but it did make a difference with the Flex since it did remove some light swirling and perked up the gloss a tad. Wow....:worship2:
I totally agree! I started out on a UDM then once I got my Flex DA it was like night and day. But when I got my 3403 I never wanted to touch a DA hehe. Great write up!
Though I don't advocate using the Flex on speed 6 - thermal shutdown, yada, yada - try 105 on a 5.5 Uber pad and watch the correction capabilities. Though my goto has always been rotary, the Flex does an awsome job for a DA!! Andy
I much prefer my PC to my Flex DA. I just find the Flex wanders way too much. The pc is just way easier to use.
I agree the Flex DA takes some getting used to.. and the PC is just SO easy.. and you can use different pad sizes. But the power of the flex is nice. I need another PC...
My comparison was with the UDM 1.0 which is more powerful than the 7424 or about the same as the 7424 XP if you go by OPM's. The newer UDM is just a PC.
Bunky my man, if I knew you wanted a Flex, I'd sold you mine and thrown in some pads. I find myself using the PC and 4" pads a lot more than the Flex.
