SPTA Cordless Mini Polisher

I've had an early generation GG 3" polisher forever (I forget whether it's the first or second generation). This is an underwhelming machine, but I've found it useful for sanding headlights (which I haven't had to do for a while). When the iBrid Nano came out, it was interesting, but not something I felt I needed. I was excited when Flex came out with the PXE-80, but disappointed it didn't have a trigger.

In the meantime, GG came out with their version of the "PiXiE", and it had a trigger, but it was $400, and since like Mike Phillips, I like to use my Flex 3401 and can use the edge of the pad to get into a lot of tighter spots, I haven't really felt the need for a mini polisher. Besides, I hardly do any polishing anymore, heck I hardly do any washing anymore, but life is life.

My newest car sat on the dealer lot for a long time, and I guess collected a bunch of tree debris under a piano black valence panel, which seems to wash out every time it rains or I wash the car. I guess at some point I used a too-aggressive (for piano black) brush trying to get debris out from between the valence panel and the paint, because last time I was washing the car I noticed a bunch of marring to the piano black in that area.

This was bugging me so I went back to look at the SPTA Cordless Mini Polisher I had looked at some time ago on Amazon. They had a $45 off coupon, and, well, I just couldn't resist for $115 for the whole kit. It comes with the polisher, charger, two batteries, a 3mm and 12mm DA eccentric, 4 backing plates (more on that later), and an assortment of foam, MF, and wool pads in 1", 2", and 3" sizes, some brushes, and a fitted carrying case (which doesn't have any room for the pads).

The eccentrics screw on, unlike what I've seen that some of the others have a quick release, and the 3mm eccentric has a smaller output thread than the 12mm, so the 1" backing plate can only be used for rotary or 3mm, there are (2) 2" backing plates, each with a different thread size, so you can use 2" pads for rotary, 3mm, or 12 mm, and the 3" backing plate can only be used in 12mm DA mode.

First impressions are...wow this thing is really heavy! The weight seems to be in the middle of the unit, between the trigger and the head, where the motor is. Hopefully that means it will have plenty of power. It seems smooth and quiet just running it with the backing plate and eccentric that was installed. In the pictures, the battery looked very similar to the Milwaukee 12V that I have for some other tools, but in reality it's quite different. The batteries are quite light and don't really do anything to balance out the weight from the motor.

Not sure when I'm actually going to get to try this out, but here's what it looks like (Amazon picture):

I purchased the SPTA mini, but corded. Very happy with it considering the price point. Foam pads are what you’d expect for the price and like having the 1” 2” and 3” options. I use it for tight places and especially polishing bare aluminum wheels.

Setec Astronomy said:

I've had an early generation GG 3" polisher forever (I forget whether it's the first or second generation). This is an underwhelming machine, but I've found it useful for sanding headlights (which I haven't had to do for a while). When the iBrid Nano came out, it was interesting, but not something I felt I needed. I was excited when Flex came out with the PXE-80, but disappointed it didn't have a trigger.

In the meantime, GG came out with their version of the "PiXiE", and it had a trigger, but it was $400, and since like Mike Phillips, I like to use my Flex 3401 and can use the edge of the pad to get into a lot of tighter spots, I haven't really felt the need for a mini polisher. Besides, I hardly do any polishing anymore, heck I hardly do any washing anymore, but life is life.

My newest car sat on the dealer lot for a long time, and I guess collected a bunch of tree debris under a piano black valence panel, which seems to wash out every time it rains or I wash the car. I guess at some point I used a too-aggressive (for piano black) brush trying to get debris out from between the valence panel and the paint, because last time I was washing the car I noticed a bunch of marring to the piano black in that area.

This was bugging me so I went back to look at the SPTA Cordless Mini Polisher I had looked at some time ago on Amazon. They had a $45 off coupon, and, well, I just couldn't resist for $115 for the whole kit. It comes with the polisher, charger, two batteries, a 3mm and 12mm DA eccentric, 4 backing plates (more on that later), and an assortment of foam, MF, and wool pads in 1", 2", and 3" sizes, some brushes, and a fitted carrying case (which doesn't have any room for the pads).

The eccentrics screw on, unlike what I've seen that some of the others have a quick release, and the 3mm eccentric has a smaller output thread than the 12mm, so the 1" backing plate can only be used for rotary or 3mm, there are (2) 2" backing plates, each with a different thread size, so you can use 2" pads for rotary, 3mm, or 12 mm, and the 3" backing plate can only be used in 12mm DA mode.

First impressions are...wow this thing is really heavy! The weight seems to be in the middle of the unit, between the trigger and the head, where the motor is. Hopefully that means it will have plenty of power. It seems smooth and quiet just running it with the backing plate and eccentric that was installed. In the pictures, the battery looked very similar to the Milwaukee 12V that I have for some other tools, but in reality it's quite different. The batteries are quite light and don't really do anything to balance out the weight from the motor.

Not sure when I'm actually going to get to try this out, but here's what it looks like (Amazon picture):

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I had the earlier version in Hawaii

Once Jim White of White Details started using the Carbon Collective version he totally quit using his Ibrid

I was quite pleased with mine and would have bought another here in Alaska but I couldn't get anyone to ship it up here because of the Li-Ion batteries

They still make the version you had, Chilly, they call it Micro instead of Mini, it's a little bit more expensive. I prefer a trigger so I went with the Mini.

Setec Astronomy said:

They still make the version you had, Chilly, they call it Micro instead of Mini, it's a little bit more expensive. I prefer a trigger so I went with the Mini.

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I have been very happy with the Shinemate mini polisher system I got

Where did you get that Shinemate, Chilly?

Setec Astronomy said:

Where did you get that Shinemate, Chilly?

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Carzilla in Calgary, Alberta

Thanks

Setec Astronomy said:

I went back to look at the SPTA Cordless Mini Polisher I had looked at some time ago on Amazon.

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Ah... I've been eyeing this tool too. I just ordered and received all the SPTA 1", 2" and 3" pad collections for my class next week. I was in dire need of a fresh supply of small foam and fiber pads.


Thanks for sharing Mike, I'll have to get this ordered. I really like the 1" and 2" pads for topical glass polishing in the corners of windows where you can't fit larger buffing pads. Plus, all the normal paint correction tasks.


Mike

As chance may have it I have an order of 1" SPTA pads on the way as well

Since Carzilla started charging me for shipping a few months back I haven't ordered anything from them and Parkscarcare won't ship to Alaska AT ALL and they are the only other Shinemate dealer I can find in North America so I am out of luck on Shinemate small pads

I think the SPTA pads are good quality and consistent, but the ones I have used are the tapered ones like in my pics above, not the flat cylindrical ones like are shown in the Amazon photo above

Lake Country makes 1" and 2" SDO pads that are tapered like that.

Setec Astronomy said:

Lake Country makes 1" and 2" SDO pads that are tapered like that.

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I know they do, so does Rupes

I just feel they are ridiculously expensive for what they are

I don't necessarily have to have tapered pads, it is just the only kind I have tried

Shinemate has 10 packs of flat pads for around $20 that I wanted to try and kept putting off and now I would have to be placing a $300-400 order with Carzilla to justify the $50 shipping

I need to contact Shinemate and explain my situation and see of they have any suggestions for getting their products

All 3 of my polishers are Shinemate, as well as a good number of my pads, and given the change in Carzilla's shipping policy I honestly am not sure I would go the Shinemate route again

Live and learn

So Chilly are the SPTA pads you have on order the tapered ones? Maybe I misunderstood, the reason I suggested the LC ones was I thought you couldn't find the tapered ones, and yes, the LC and Griot's are very expensive in comparison to the SPTA sets I now see on Amazon that are about $1 each for the 1" tapered, pads, with some MF and wool thrown in.

Setec Astronomy said:

So Chilly are the SPTA pads you have on order the tapered ones? Maybe I misunderstood, the reason I suggested the LC ones was I thought you couldn't find the tapered ones, and yes, the LC and Griot's are very expensive in comparison to the SPTA sets I now see on Amazon that are about $1 each for the 1" tapered, pads, with some MF and wool thrown in.

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Yes, I got the 1" SPTA tapered pad set sent from China for $10 shipped

It takes a few weeks but that's OK

I found out the other day that I could have gotten them from Amazon as well and next time I will just order from them

I actually tried to order a set of 2" pads from China as well but the order was direct from SPTA and they canceled the order saying they have no method to ship to Alaska

I haven't tried either the Shinemate or SPTA wool pads on paint but they are great for restoring headlights and glass, as Mike Phillips stated

The Shinemate white/blue microfiber pads can cut and finish well on paint

Mike Phillips said:

Thanks

Ah... I've been eyeing this tool too. I just ordered and received all the SPTA 1", 2" and 3" pad collections for my class next week. I was in dire need of a fresh supply of small foam and fiber pads.


Thanks for sharing Mike, I'll have to get this ordered. I really like the 1" and 2" pads for topical glass polishing in the corners of windows where you can't fit larger buffing pads. Plus, all the normal paint correction tasks.


Mike

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I worry about the longevity of the rechargeable battery. For lack of better terms, when it comes to relatively cheap rotary polishers, I’d prefer corded.
Thoughts??

Dsholes78 said:

I worry about the longevity of the rechargeable battery. For lack of better terms, when it comes to relatively cheap rotary polishers, I’d prefer corded.
Thoughts??

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The one thing that the ibrid had that these other battery operated machines are missing is an AC adapter so you can run corded if you need to

The Shinemate is not a "cheap" machine by any means, either in quality or price

The SPTA battery machines are good quality machines as well and I am sure the battery technology is up to the task

Using your analogy we would still be using corded drills, drivers, etc

chilly said:

The one thing that the ibrid had that these other battery operated machines are missing is an AC adapter so you can run corded if you need to

Using your analogy we would still be using corded drills, drivers, etc

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I agree, although I will say that some of my Ryobi batteries with the status lights, don't seem to charge up all the way anymore--I haven't figured out if they really don't have the same capacity or if it's just some malfunction in the lights...I will admit to in the "off season" not using the tools much and leaving a battery in the charger for maybe 6 months, although it's a smart charger that goes to trickle so theoretically no harm, no foul.

Setec Astronomy said:

I agree, although I will say that some of my Ryobi batteries with the status lights, don't seem to charge up all the way anymore--I haven't figured out if they really don't have the same capacity or if it's just some malfunction in the lights...I will admit to in the "off season" not using the tools much and leaving a battery in the charger for maybe 6 months, although it's a smart charger that goes to trickle so theoretically no harm, no foul.

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I posted on AG how I noticed my EGO blower batteries blinking occasionally when not in use and off the machine, and how the customer service guy explained that is the battery "exercising" itself while stored to keep from losing its chops over time

If true then that is pretty smart technology

Dsholes78 said:

I worry about the longevity of the rechargeable battery. For lack of better terms, when it comes to relatively cheap rotary polishers, I’d prefer corded.
Thoughts??

Click to expand...

I was given the prototype FLEX PE-150 Rotary Polisher by Bob Eichelberg in July of 2017 - 4-months before FLEX revealed this new tool at SEMA in Las Vegas. I'm still using it today. I have 39 - 5 Amp batteries and 12 of the smaller, PXE-80 batteries as of today. Since 2017, I've only had a few batteries die on me. All the rest have been torture-tested for years.



Ever since getting the prototype, unless I am polishing glass, I always use this cordless rotary. I should have written down how many cars and boats I've detailed with it but alas - never did and too hard to remember all these projects.

For my classes, everyone grabs a cordless. No one grabs a corded rotary. This is both for cars and boats. With the boats, however, keep in mind we start sanding at 1000 grit and usually finish out at 2500 or higher and this is why we can use a cordless rotary for our boat classes.

I quit teaching how to use a rotary to remove deep oxidation and dock rash back in 2013. I teach sanding instead of pushing HARD with a rotary for hours or days. That's the caveman approach.

Just me though...


Mike

Mike Phillips said:

I was given the prototype FLEX PE-150 Rotary Polisher by Bob Eichelberg in July of 2017 - 4-months before FLEX revealed this new tool at SEMA in Las Vegas. I'm still using it today. I have 39 - 5 Amp batteries and 12 of the smaller, PXE-80 batteries as of today. Since 2017, I've only had a few batteries die on me. All the rest have been torture-tested for years.

Ever since getting the prototype, unless I am polishing glass, I always use this cordless rotary. I should have written down how many cars and boats I've detailed with it but alas - never did and too hard to remember all these projects.

For my classes, everyone grabs a cordless. No one grabs a corded rotary. This is both for cars and boats. With the boats, however, keep in mind we start sanding at 1000 grit and usually finish out at 2500 or higher and this is why we can use a cordless rotary for our boat classes.

I quit teaching how to use a rotary to remove deep oxidation and dock rash back in 2013. I teach sanding instead of pushing HARD with a rotary for hours or days. That's the caveman approach.

Just me though...


Mike

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Understood, I do not consider the Flex a cheap rotary. Comment was pointed more to the SPTA brand specifically. Likewise, I could compare it to a cellphone when you get the phone new, the battery lasts 3 days and 2 years later it lasts 3 hours.

And for what it's worth,

Besides the 24' Sea Hunt Center Console for this upcoming Sunday's Extreme Boat Detailing Class, I have 3 cars in the garage my class will be sanding and then cutting using the cordless FLEX rotary polishers. I have all the batteries charged, backing plates and wool pads ready to go. Plus, spurs.

Going to be a great class.



This came in Saturday to replace the 1970 VW Shorty Micro Buss (VW has a date with a carburetor)




We will start by wet sanding the paint followed by machine dry sanding.







The blue 1949 Fleetline will be used to teach wet sanding by hand. The white 1972 Corvette will be used to teach the 3M Trizact Damp Sanding System.




And there's 6 other cars for this single, 3-day class. Going to be busy.

Mike

Well, I got to try this polisher the other day, and I was underwhelmed. I was trying to polish some yellowed headlights, so I thought that would be a good project for this tool. It came with the 12mm orbit head attached, which I had a heck of a time getting off, but did and installed the 3mm orbit eccentric and a 2" orange pad.

The headlights I was working on are mostly convex, and I was getting a lot of stalling, so I said to heck with it and went rotary. I thought I'd be able to get in to the edge of the headlights without masking but wound up splattering polish up to the windshield. So I gave up and put an old Optimum 3.5 MF compounding pad on my old PC and knocked out the job (after masking around the lights).

It may be the orange pad that came with the polisher was too hard for what I was doing, but this is a car I'm trying to get rid of and just wanted the headlights to not look yellow, so I didn't have the patience to spend a lot of time experimenting.

On the plus side I had a little bottle of McKee's 37 headlight polish that I got when AG was blowing out the line at half price back in...2017? When I took off the cap it seemed alright but when I tried to squeeze it out I could hardly get it to come out, and it smelled terrible (solvent) and didn't work very well, so in the garbage it went! One inch of reclaimed shelf space! I went on to use some original formula Optimum Hyper Compound...um...that I also got...when AG was blowing it out. I really should try to curb my "on sale" spending...but to paraphrase Lloyd Bridges from Airplane, I picked the wrong week to do that.

Setec Astronomy said:

Well, I got to try this polisher the other day, and I was underwhelmed. I was trying to polish some yellowed headlights, so I thought that would be a good project for this tool. It came with the 12mm orbit head attached, which I had a heck of a time getting off, but did and installed the 3mm orbit eccentric and a 2" orange pad.

The headlights I was working on are mostly convex, and I was getting a lot of stalling, so I said to heck with it and went rotary. I thought I'd be able to get in to the edge of the headlights without masking but wound up splattering polish up to the windshield. So I gave up and put an old Optimum 3.5 MF compounding pad on my old PC and knocked out the job (after masking around the lights).

It may be the orange pad that came with the polisher was too hard for what I was doing, but this is a car I'm trying to get rid of and just wanted the headlights to not look yellow, so I didn't have the patience to spend a lot of time experimenting.

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Copy that, for all my headlight corrections and in our classes, I teach using rotary to sand and rotary to buff followed by any orbital to remove holograms out of plastic and then seal.

Almost done with the pictures from my September class, which will show most of this process.

Setec Astronomy said:

On the plus side I had a little bottle of McKee's 37 headlight polish that I got when AG was blowing out the line at half price back in...2017? When I took off the cap it seemed alright but when I tried to squeeze it out I could hardly get it to come out, and it smelled terrible (solvent) and didn't work very well, so in the garbage it went! One inch of reclaimed shelf space! I went on to use some original formula Optimum Hyper Compound...um...that I also got...when AG was blowing it out. I really should try to curb my "on sale" spending...but to paraphrase Lloyd Bridges from Airplane, I picked the wrong week to do that.

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Sad to say not only do I remember that Lloyd Bridges movie, I remember Sea Hunt, but I was just a kid.


Mike

Mike Phillips said:

Copy that, for all my headlight corrections and in our classes, I teach using rotary to sand and rotary to buff followed by any orbital to remove holograms out of plastic and then seal.

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I meant I went to the rotary mode on this little SPTA polisher, which didn't work out for me...maybe when I have time to play around with it some more.

Setec Astronomy said:

I meant I went to the rotary mode on this little SPTA polisher, which didn't work out for me...maybe when I have time to play around with it some more.

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Copy that. I've used the RUPES Nano extensively since they were first introduced, I think we had 6 of them in the Autogeek tool arsenal. I know I have a bunch of write-ups on this tool. So happy to see the pictures still show-up for this thread. That was a very cool car to detail.

Doing Edge Work with RUPES Nano in Rotary Mode - Mike Phillips Style




Same goes for the FLEX PXE-80 aka The PiXiE. FWIW I was given the Number #1 PiXiE from Bob Eichelberg at SEMA when it was first introduced. I gave the tool and all its accessories to this guy at the next year's SEMA hoping it would be a more workable tool for him, never seen nor heard of him much since. I love his passion to detail but normal size tool were just really difficult and awkward for him to hold and use.




For the most part, I love these tools because when they are the right tool for the job, then they're the right tool for the job. Kind of like a rotary. That said, outside of machine sanding with the PiXiE with the 6mm drive unit, about the only other way I use them is in rotary mode. With the 3mm and 12mm orbital drive unites, they simply struggle to maintain any good level of pad rotation and pad oscillation.

Using the PiXiE with the 6mm drive unit to edge a panel on a MirandaBuilt.com 1969 GTO






Never used any of the other micro-tools outside of the RUPES Nano or FLEX PiXiE, but always open to the next best thing. At this time, I'm planning to attend the 2025 Detailer Fest in Brasil with my long-time friend Michael Pena and he has a really good relationship with the owner of SIGMA Tools, so looking forward to testing these out, I've been told they have a pretty good selection of different types of tools.


Mike