I have a griots garage device. Have not used it yet. I don't know if it's a polisher or an orbital buffer? I bought it from uncle Al(Ruby)
Your right an orbital polisher needs a trained individual
a RAndom Orbital Polisher can be used by anyone
Random is the operative word 
Got into the paint clean, compound and buff business today and here's a loose report of the progress. I've never done this before and just did the rear deck lid to get some practice. Just a quick note first about how wet the engine got when I gave the rear end a quick wash today to get started. I'll be doing something to waterproof the engine...the coil, dizzy cap and plenty of the wires had water all over. Plus, after a rain if you lift the engine lid to check the oil or something, collected water in the lid pisses directly down onto each carb and other places. NFG.
Anyway, for an applicator I bought a Meguiar's DA drill attachment tool for $70 CAD to get started. I like the hook and loop feature rather than an elastic fastened bonnet type pads. It worked pretty well and came with the yellow pad so I had to buy the burgundy and black pads to do the compound and wax. You don't need one for the wax...from on now I'll do that application with a foam hand pad. You're just spreading on a thin layer of a thin liquid anyway.
I started with a Ryobi cordless drill but it didn't have the power to get the compound into the job so I switched to my old faithful B&D contractors grade 110v power drill. About three applications got me to about where I didn't feel I could get much more improvement. On to the polishing and then the wax. Everything went pretty much according to internet info predictions and I'm pleased with the results. About 90% of the swirls came out, there were 3 stubborn blemishes ( odd looking paint chips maybe ) that got improved but that would be a paint touch up process now I think. There were a couple of odd looking other blemishes...pine gum or something that didn't get quite washed away ever maybe and that came off easily with the clay bar process. Not too much else got into the clay so the car wasn't that dirty.
All this is hard to explain and my pics here are pretty lame due to poor lighting and technique but you should be able to see a good difference if you look hard. Several pics show a decent difference between the deck lid and the surrounding fender areas of the car after the work was done but the colour is dead wrong in a couple of pics. The real colour is pretty much a Merlot or dark burgundy and that is shown in several pics. First pic is before, second and third are after.
Overall I'm pleased and will continue with this process. I can see the clay bar process getting boring pretty quickly so I'll try to round up Suzanne again to come over lend a hand. She's quite unreliable at the best of times but fun to be around when she's here....
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David Stroud posted:
...so I'll try to round up Suzanne again to come over lend a hand. She's quite unreliable at the best of times but fun to be around when she's here....
So, apparently, you do need a stripper.
Piss-poor lighting or not, that is a really pretty color.......
On the car.
Suzanne has good color, too.
Forget the car's rear end, Dave...
Went full circle and just bought a Griots 6" random orbital polisher / buffer kit with the misc pads for all applications. Again....totally against my normal grain. Maybe next year I'll need new shades....gloves ? Yewww....
That made me chuckle, really, you might also need a tweed jacket and a nice hat
I am sure you'll clean up nicely with those