The POWER of two polishers in ONE: The Makita BO6040 Two Mode Orbital Polisher

[Todd@RUPES]

Makita BO6040 "Two Mode" Orbital Polisher

Makita BO6040 6.5 Inch Pad Kit

The Makita BO6040 "Two Mode" Orbital Polisher/Sander is perhaps the most unique dual action (DA) polisher on the market. Dual action polishers get their name from the way the move the pad. A DA polisher features both tiny orbital movements (tiny circles like how you would move your hand if you where waxing on and waxing off) as well as a spinning motion (like a top spinning).

There are two types of DA polishers:

• Random Orbital- Random Orbital DA polishers drive the orbital motion. The spinning motion is driven by centrifugal force and is allowed because of a bearing. If you push a Random Orbital DA polisher down to hard the pad will stop spinning but the machine will continue to orbit (feels like jiggling).
  
• Forced Rotation- Forced Rotation DA polishers drive both the orbital and rotational motions. This gives them more power for polishing paint as the pad will not stall when pressure is applied (it could bog slightly under extreme pressure, just like any machine).

The Makita "Two Mode" is both a Random Orbital DA Polisher and a Forced Rotation DA Polisher in one machine!




The tail houses a speed dial, which allows you to select the orbital speed (up to 5800 opm). Foreward (and to the right) is the on/off selector.






There is an orange colored knob that allows you to switch between Forced Rotation (towards the front of the machine) and free-spinning Random Orbital mode (towards the back of the machine).




Here is a picture of our test panel. Scarred with numerous deep scratches this is a perfect place to test the fine sanding (Random Orbital Mode), cutting (Forced Rotation mode) and final polishing (Random Orbital Mode) of the Makita BO6040.




To start with sanding I turned the dial towards the tail to engage the free-spinning Random Orbital DA mode. I armed the machine with a Meguiar`s 6 inch interface pad and Meguiar`s 3000 grit sanding discs.






The Makita uses a shorter 3/16 stroke, which makes sanding a breeze while reducing the risk of creating pig tails. There is some drag on the bearing so you don`t achieve quite the rotational speed of pure Random Orbital DA Polishers, further reducing the chance of creating pig tails.



A mist of water and a speed 3 made the sanding easy.






The Makita was extremely easy to control and the lower rotational speed made it extremely easy to gauge progress. I stopped sanding and removed the residue as soon as all the larger defects where leveled.






The Makita "Two Mode" made sanding easy. Now it was time to test out the polishing power. Could the Makita, with its 3/16th stroke power out the sanding scratches?

To test I went with a mild compound (BLACKFIRE SRC Compound) and a yellow foam pad.






Flipping the dial forward armed the forced rotation mode.




I drew a cross across the pad, set the dial to full speed, and polished using firm over lapping passes until the BLACKFIRE SRC Compound began to clear up.




Wiping the the residue off revealed that ALL of the sanding marks have been removed and the paint was looking extremely glossy!




So how can a machine with less stroke and less orbital speed (5800) deliver so much cutting power? The answer is in the numbers. Other manufacturers of Forced Rotation Polishers use a different number to figure out orbital speeds, which rates them as twice as much as they produce. If measuring apples-to-apples, the Makita BO6040 produces roughly 1000 more orbits per minute then any other forced rotation machine, mostly negating the difference in stroke size.

To add a little gloss and remove any compounding haze I switched a Lake Country Green AIO pad and BLACKFIRE Total Polish & Seal. I set the selector back into Random Orbit mode and made several passes on speed 4 until the TP&S appeared to melt into the paint.

The result was a flawless finish, from one machine!

[tropicsteve]

wow, the best of both worlds. pretty impressive results !

[Todd@RUPES]

wow, the best of both worlds. pretty impressive results !

I was very happy with the performance of this machine.

[Pockets]

I see a Poorboy`s World banner in one of those hood shots lol

Nice write up Todd

[mrclean81]

Oh wow this looks like a very competent machine. I was thinking about a new Flex, but I might look into one of these instead.

[glfahlc1]

looks like a pretty nice machine there todd... the best of both worlds

[Addicted2Bling]

It looks smaller than a porta cable!

[BobbyG]

Todd,

A great review of a fine machine.

Makita is probably one of the best engineered product line on the market today. I`m not slamming other manufactures but Makita is legendary in it`s performance, reliability, and durability. Every Makita tool I have performs as it did the first time I switched it on....perfectly...

[Todd@RUPES]

Oh wow this looks like a very competent machine. I was thinking about a new Flex, but I might look into one of these instead.

It looks smaller than a porta cable!

It`s about 2-3 inches longer than the PC.

[Gurge]

nice review. Been kinda considering either a 3401 or maybe this unit

care to comment on how this tool does with cleaning your pad on the fly? (like with a towel pressed into your hand).

I assume you`d need to switch to random mode (not forced rotation). But this alone seems like it may be an advantage over the flex (which I imagine is tough to do conventional cleaning on the fly since its forced rotation only and the trigger is down low, not on the side, making it hard to handle with one hand like you would while cleaning the pad)

also, any significant build up of heat in the tool? I`ve heard some others mention this with the flex

[Bunky]

Thanks for the review. It looks like a well built unit but looks heavy.

[Todd@RUPES]

nice review. Been kinda considering either a 3401 or maybe this unit

care to comment on how this tool does with cleaning your pad on the fly? (like with a towel pressed into your hand).

I assume you`d need to switch to random mode (not forced rotation). But this alone seems like it may be an advantage over the flex (which I imagine is tough to do conventional cleaning on the fly since its forced rotation only and the trigger is down low, not on the side, making it hard to handle with one hand like you would while cleaning the pad)

also, any significant build up of heat in the tool? I`ve heard some others mention this with the flex

I have never really had an issue with cleaning the FLEX on the fly so I can not really comment. I have not noticed any heat built up with either the FLEX 3401 or this tool.

[Addicted2Bling]

I`ll tell you what, I love my porta cable, but I could see how something like this could be 10x better. No more buffer stalls when you need rotations, and no burning the paint! You can`t beat that with a stick!

[Todd@RUPES]

I`ll tell you what, I love my porta cable, but I could see how something like this could be 10x better. No more buffer stalls when you need rotations, and no burning the paint! You can`t beat that with a stick!

It really is a great tool!

[Stokdgs]

It really is a great tool!

Todd,

Does Makita or Autopia offer this with the smaller backing plates for 5", 4" and 3" pad sizes ?

The right answer will result in an instant sale !

Thanks
Dan F