This machine gets top
marks!
Here's an example that could
be studied in business school. Hitachi wanted to enter the US polisher/sander
market a few years ago. At the time the market was dominated by DeWalt, Makita and Porter Cable. They studied the
competition and conducted an extensive customer survey to determine what
features users wanted. Armed with this market research, Hitachi built the SP18VA
Polisher, the machine with everything.
For starters, it has a
heavy-duty, 11 amp motor. That's a larger motor than either DeWalt or Makita
uses, yet Hitachi packed it into a compact, 16-7/16 inch body that weighs only 6.2
pounds. That's two pounds less than the DeWalt DW849. Now two pounds doesn't
sound like much, but if you spend time polishing a vertical surface like a boat
hull, RV or the side of your car for five or six hours, it's the difference of going home and still
being able to raise your arm enough to enjoy your favorite brew!
Hitachi wisely opted for the
wrap-around, front grip preferred by professional users and started the first
speed stop at 600 rpm rather than the usual 1000 rpm. This is a great feature
when working on black or red finishes where you want to keep the speed down.
Like the competition, the
SP18VA Polisher features "soft starting" to prevent torque jump when
starting and uses electronic speed regulation to maintain a constant speed
regardless of the torque load. A spindle lock permits you to quickly and easily
change backing plates.
Now that you've built a
machine with the size, weight, features and performance that everyone wanted,
how do you entice the public to trust the new kid on the block? You give it a
FIVE YEAR WARRANTY! That's five times longer than anyone in the industry!
|
Dial |
Speed/rpm |
Type of Work |
|
1 |
600 |
Light polishing |
|
2 |
1100 |
Normal polishing |
|
3 |
1700 |
Heavy polishing |
|
4 |
2300 |
Heavy compounding/light sanding |
|
5 |
2900 |
Sanding |
|
6 |
3400 |
Sanding |
|
It would be nice if Hitachi printed the actual rpm on the
speed dial. If this is your only polisher, it's probably not a big deal
but if you use various machines it's easy to forget what
speed the numbers represent.
The Hook and Loop Backing Plate that comes with the
polisher, like the Makita 9227, is a 6-1/2 inch backing plate which is great for
sanding but is non-standard for foam polishing pads. If you are working on a
boat or RV, we prefer to use 8-1/2 inch pads which self-center on a 7 inch
backing plate. You can use our 8-1/2
inch, CCS Technology, High-gloss Pads with this 6-1/2 inch backing
plate but you have to be careful to center the pad on the backing plate or
you'll get some polishing "wobble". For cars, we prefer to use 6-1/2 inch
or 7-1/2 inch foam pads which require a 6 inch backing plate. You CANNOT
use our 7-1/2 inch pads with the 6-1/2 inch backing
plate that comes with this machine. You can use our 6-1/2 inch, CCS
Technology and 6-1/2 inch Professional Flat Pads with the 6-1/2 inch
backing plate but the backing plate extends to the edge of the
pad. You
must be very careful working near adjacent panels. If you are
buying this polisher primarily to polish cars or trucks, consider buying a 6 Inch Flexible Backing Plate (Our
FBP-6C listed below). This would allow you to use our
7-1/2
inch, CCS Technology High-gloss Pads and/or any of our
6-1/2 inch pads. Or, get a 7 inch Flexible
Backing Plate (Our FBP-7C listed below) and use our
8-1/2 inch, CCS Technology, High-gloss Pads if you are working mostly on
boats or RV's.
If you already have
a dual-action machine and want to step-up to a professional circular
polisher, we can't think of a better choice than the Hitachi SP18VA. |
