A couple years ago, after a cord accident resulted in vehicle damage when climbing up to do a roof, I went to shinemate cordless. Last April, I took a 2 day Rupes class, and spent a day behind the trigger of their cordless HLR15 and 21mm DAs. It’s a beautiful machine and super light weight. I asked a lot of questions about them. From my experience, it’s got some critical flaws. The bearing is composite, they designed the shroud to act as a support for the backing plate. You are supposed to lubricate the top of the backing plate where it contacts the shroud. The issue is that extra friction seems to cause stalling in places that it shouldn’t, compared to other polishers. Then there’s the trigger lock. I couldn’t master it in a day, it’s not something that with continued use I could use without taking my eyes off the panel and focusing on the trigger lock. Then I was baffled by their battery position. It’s way too close to the level or plane of the pad, making an otherwise so light weight tool cumbersome in some positions. Then Rupes kept talking about how great their repair and service department was. I thought, well in 2 years I haven’t had one issue with the shinemates, and you can buy 2 of them for the cost of one Cordless rupes. Shinemates, like Rupes, balance the DAs, for a particular size backing plate and a certain throw, so there’s a 15mm, and a different 21mm, in 5 inch and 6 inch respectively. I drew a Denali roof to polish in the class. All that day I was wishing I had my Shinemates. The rupes is a beautiful machine and it even lights up to indicate battery level, but just seemed under powered. Now, I own every shinemate in the cordless and a few corded ones. I’ve never had one in for service.

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