Roger needs to perform some polishing on a boat, and seeks advice on whether to use a rotary or a random orbital buffer.

I need to compound and polish gel coat surface on a boat. Which type of buffer is suitable for this work, rotary or orbital?

Thanks for submitting your question Roger.

Typically speaking, the gel coat used on the finish of a boat is much harder than clear coat on cars. Given this, a rotary buffer is probably your best choice of tools for compounding and polishing. If you’re dealing with just light oxidation a Porter Cable 7424XP would work fine, but heavy oxidation will require the use of a rotary for best results.

I hope this helps!