Diamabrush, what am I doing wrong.

[INTMD8]

Sooo, I've got about 1700sq/ft of concrete I need to prep for a white Legacy floor.

So far I did the entire perimeter with a Diamabrush and hand grinder which worked great. Also filled saw cuts with gel epoxy.

Today I rented a Diamabrush and floor polisher from Home Depot. Pictured on the machine is what I used.

I tried it with 40lbs and 80lbs of additional weight and it was painfully slow. Took me over 4 hours to do just over 100sq/ft.

When I returned the machine a different employee said I had the wrong wheel, the one I was using was for removing coatings. The wheel he said I should be using had about twice as many paddles. (pictured last)

Any input on this? Thanks!!!

VIDEO-

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

He is correct. You are using the coatings removal tool. It has less blades and makes the work slow. Only use this for coatings removal.
Also... you are not trying to grind the floor flat. Only opening the surface.

The last pic is the concrete prep tool plus, this should make the work go along faster.

Start in one spot, let the machine dig in a bit (not literally) and then slowly move it left or right. Don't swing the machine like you are buffing or waxing the surface.

This video link (Nohr-S) shows the machine in action the way it should be used.
http://www.legacyindustrial.net/nohr-s-polyurea-coating-product-video.html

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

I was just at my local home depot eyeballing their machines and they said to make sure to get the black disc. There's a video on youtube that's like a Home Depot training video that I thought gave a bunch of good information about how to use the machine.

 

[INTMD8]

Thanks for the info. I even called after I first started using it "yep you have the right one!", LOL, what a pain.

And I think I did have the mentality that I was trying to grind it flat as it would't touch any of the low spots.

Ok, so I'm dedicating next weekend entirely to floor grinding. Will obviously go with the concrete prep tool.

As for driving it, anything I can rent with more power/rpm or will that not matter? Seems like the small diamabrush works awesome but of course it's running some real rpm. Seems like this big one could take 2-3 times the speed it was moving.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Thanks for the info. I even called after I first started using it "yep you have the right one!", LOL, what a pain.



And I think I did have the mentality that I was trying to grind it flat as it would't touch any of the low spots.



Ok, so I'm dedicating next weekend entirely to floor grinding. Will obviously go with the concrete prep tool.



As for driving it, anything I can rent with more power/rpm or will that not matter? Seems like the small diamabrush works awesome but of course it's running some real rpm. Seems like this big one could take 2-3 times the speed it was moving.

This is a great question. The Edco 10" machine will outpace the diamabrush if the going is slow. The dual head Edco, even more so.



The Home Depot should rent these as well.



Main difference, you can add much more weight to the head without hurting anything.

 

[INTMD8]

So I tried the concrete prep tool yesterday. I think my floor is just not smooth enough for this as it's only grinding the high spots, leaving much of the floor untouched.

Even this seemed to take forever. My plan now is to buy a few 7" diamabrush wheels. Even my 4.5in wheel on a hand grinder goes faster than the prep tool on a floor machine.

 

[Slowgsr]

Sounds like you need to hire a helper to push the machine around if it's taking too long?
Money well spent sometimes

 

[INTMD8]

I suppose I could but I really think the 7" wheel will be faster. Even if I hired someone they would need to spend 2 hours on each 100sqft section. Now I've paid to rent this setup and someone to use it for 3 10hr days.

 

[SALIV8]

I think I read that you have to add weight to the machine somehow to help if it's being stubborn.

I have no idea how this would be achieved safely, but might be worth it to see if you could come up with something?

Looks good so far.

 

[INTMD8]

I had 80lbs on the machine which actually caused the first one I rented to fail. (Loud bang and smoke).

Second machine was their heavy duty version and handled the 80lbs no problem but just very slow progress.

 

[NitroShark]

Check my thread out with grinding with a 7 inch grinder, It may help.


http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=263058


Shawn

 

[Reflex]

INTMD8,

I too had the same problem with the Diamabrush (the proper Dimabrush). I guess my concrete was just too hard for it to scratch up. After a couple of hours and getting only 50 square feet done. I gave up.

I ended up renting a small Lavina machine with planetary rotation and diamond buttons. It was very effective and easy to run....but expensive. I also ended up running it wet which made the clean-up a mess, but I got my 2200 feet done in about 7 hours.

The machine can be found here: http://www.lavinagrinder.com/lavina-l21X/

I also found that the occasional high spot (a big 1/16" over about a square foot) would be leveled out by the machine. I didn't have many of these, but the two I had ended up looking very nice.

I'd use it again as it was quiet and nearly effortless to run.

 

[INTMD8]

Shawn, thanks for the link. Your place turned out awesome!

Reflex, that looks like a nice machine, I'll see if I can find one locally. (though I did order a 7" grinder already).

My floor was poured in 99. Maybe people are having better luck with the Diamabrush on newer concrete?

 

[carhunter]

When I returned the machine a different employee said I had the wrong wheel, the one I was using was for removing coatings. The wheel he said I should be using had about twice as many paddles. (pictured last)

I rented a clarke and the coating removal tool from HD a couple months ago and couldn't get any progress removing the old tile mastic from my floors. After 1hr, took it back and asked if the blades were dull. Yep...they changed them out for me.

Saw the black diamabrush and asked if that would be better since I was also trying to level my floor..."nope, that's smoother for polishing out grit marks".

Hmmm...ok...Didn't sound right but I took the first brush back to the warehouse. It was better with fresh fingers, but still took me almost 16h to do about 1800sf.

At least now I know better for the next time around!

 

[INTMD8]

I have had no luck finding a Lavina grinder for rent locally but still looking.

In the meantime I spent some time with the 7" diamabrush on a Makita grinder this weekend. Have about 450sqft done. Very slow going! Takes me about 2 hours per 100sqft. Most of the surface is super hard and the diamabrush takes a while to even touch it. A few spots here and there seems softer and work goes faster.

I tried a 7" diamond cup wheel as well and it was slightly quicker but vibrates so much my hands go numb.

I can rent a dual head Edco locally. They have a gas powered version as well but thought it may be a bad option as far as contaminating the floor.

 

[NitroShark]

I tried a 7" diamond cup wheel as well and it was slightly quicker but vibrates so much my hands go numb.

If you get a Loop style handle like the picture below, it will handle much better with a whole lot less vibration.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

A hard troweled floor becomes much stronger at the surface than the actual compressive strength of the concrete. These type of floors require the use of a "softer diamond". The lesser troweled floors do better with a harder diamond. The Diamabrush has no adjustment for this and therefore you guys with the hard and very smooth floors need to be prepared to rent the heavier duty equipment in order to get it done.

The alternative is adding weight and muscling it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Wanted to update this thread....
Diamabrush has a new head coming out, in the future, that will help address some of this.
It is in beta testing now. Apparently, it will be more aggressive.

 

[INTMD8]

I will volunteer to beta test it

 

[Armorpoxy]

Agree with this thread, hard concrete needs 'soft bond' diamond tooling which is not available on Diamabrush. Only professional type grinders can offer different hardness tooling and can be purchased usually only from floor prep supply companies. Most rental companies will rent the machines, but they usually make you buy the diamonds, hence making it expensive to DIY. Best to plan ahead and buy your own diamond tooling if you rent a grinder.

Our Prep-Crete Surface prep Division has to keep over 100k of assorted tooling on hand to tackle all types of concrete since we never know from day to day what we will encounter.

Short answer there is no one cure-all setup for grinding.

 

[INTMD8]

Well, I spent my entire weekend finishing this. Used a Makita grinder and 2 7" diamabrush.

By far not the most enjoyable thing I have done!

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Now that is a grind job.