Hardin HWV5GRIN Variable Speed Polisher 5 Inch Concrete and Stone Wet Polishing Kit with Diamond Pads

This is exactly what we were looking for with our concrete countertop project. We started with the low grit, exposing the cement down to the aggregate so the natural colors of the exposed stone and fossils we inserted would pop. That was the longest grit to polish with, but we took off a lot. We moved up with a few runs over the top using each grit to 400, then used slurry to fill in any of the exposed holes or gaps due to our inexperience in concrete pouring, and laziness with shaking our molds. We then polished with each of the Hardin pads up to 1500, wow. Slick, shiny, one of the most impressive DIY's we've done. The mold building and concrete pouring were the hardest part of this project, and that was with average to above average carpentry skills. The Hardin polisher was a great tool for us having zero experience polishing. It was easy to use, and did a great job. The handle options are versatile, which we didn't think would matter, but in the end it did, just because of the location of our counter layout so we utilized both handle options. Great product! Now we're scheming for other projects.

Received this unit on time and it was packaged VERY Well. Came with everying in the description along with the users manual. I've never done any concrete countertop finishing before and have close to 300 square feet of freshly poured outdoor love to embrace over the next week or so.Started off on a test section (poured separate to the main counter), connected the hose, plugged it in and fired it up. Using this outdoors it is NOT very loud, sure you can hear the grinder working but at the time of this review I have been out there for about four hours total and have not had any problems at all with noise levels. No complaints from my wife, dogs, or neighbors :)Since I am using this to expose the aggregate and embedded fireglass I decided to start with another type of disc (Turbo Cup) for quicker removal of material until I get to the desired look we are after. This thing RIPS through the top with very little pressure and does a great job of leveling my otherwise less than professional original pour.So far I've only used this for Wet Grinding and the guard is actually doing a great job of keeping the water off me and dispersed in the direction of where the opeing is. SURE you get a small mist that is inevitable, but honestly all I have used so far is a pair of rubber boots and a disposable vynil dishwashing apron and there is nothing on me at all when I am done for the evening. Never once have I felt any kind of shock, hum, or buzz while using this device even without gloves. GFCI switch has worked as expected and have no fears of saftey.Got about 100sqft left with the initial grind then will be switching to the disc's that came with the unit, I'll follow up with an additional review once I have had a chance to use them.

I bought this to try polishing and shaping rocks and it worked better than expected. I started with granite rocks split using a hammer drill and wedges which left some of the drill holes in the surface and a fairly rough surface. To smooth it out I used a diamond cup disc which worked relatively quickly and allowed me to removed 1/4" of rock from parts of the surface much faster than expected. Once the surface was basically flat I started using the the 50 grit disc and worked my way up to 3000. When I was finished the surface was a glossy finish just like a granite countertop.The water guard does do very little to keep you from getting soaked but that appears to be pretty standard based on some of the videos I saw of others polishing using different grinders. I found it easiest to work outside and in clothes that I could comfortably get soaked in.There maybe better grinders but for the money I am very happy with the results of this one.

I've had this for just about a year, and it just died. It seems something gave way in the gears, and it suddenly began to run very roughly and was getting rapidly worse before I was able to stop it. I can turn the disk by hand, and it will now jam up randomly, and I have to turn it in the other direction to free it up. Seems like there are pieces floating around in the gears.I bought this to support a concrete countertop project in my kitchen, and have about 15 hours of use on the tool. I am almost done, but now will have to get another tool to replace this one. Next time I would get a different tool that would hopefully at least last through one project. It worked fine up to this point, although it was pretty noisy. I used ear muff style ear protectors during use. I have no idea how loud other tools are. The supplied disks cover the required grit ranges and seem to have enough life to get through my project easily.I'm now going to pursue getting a replacement from Hardin, although I can't find any mention of a warranty in the documentation.