Beal Buffing Large Work?

Strap your drill to something controllable - band clamps to a 2x4 held in a vise for one - and take advantage of the small size of the drill motor to use your regular buffs. I've used the flex shaft and standard buffing wheels as well.

Trouble with being a member of the elite is that you exclude the regular folks....

Some thoughts:

1. Get the three-buff system, and only install the middle buff. That gives you a lot more clearance between the buff and the headstock/tailstock assemblies.

1. If you have a swivel head lathe (I do, IIRC you don't) turn the headstock 180 degrees and buff off the end of the lathe. That will let you get into the bowl with a bowl buff with the maximum amount of clearance.

Alternately, have a machinist build you a longer buff holder for your lathe.

I have a 1/2 inch chuck permanently mounted on my old HF (gasp) lathe with a buff on it. Some people just mount a buff on an old washing machine motor.

Ruth

You may want to look at the Beal Bowl Buff. A 2" or 3" bowl buff attached to a drill moter would be a lot easer to handle and control. As with power sanding you have control of the tool.

Henry

Thanks for the suggestion, George.

Not quite sure what you meant by "Trouble with being a member of the elite is that you exclude the regular folks..." unless you were saying you're not a member at WoW. Everyone is welcomed there, it's just that they are using

Ruth

Hi DJ, I made one of those 3-wheel buffing systems and probably could remove

I just might have a longer buff holder made, didn't want to do it for one platter but someday I might turn another one.

Thanks, say "hi" to your family for me!

Ruth

SNIP>>>>>

========== George, They let me in; I may not always be a regular guy, but a little bran usually cures that!! (:-)

Ken Moon Webbeville, TX.

Not to worry, Ruth, it is just class envy. Heaven knows, along with Arch and Myself that you are a class act! As to WoW being populated by the elites, heck they even let me join! Can't be a very elite group considering that!

Love your platter Ruth, I am only concerned about your wafting in and out of time warps and taking pictures of future platters now. Golly, maybe George does have a point about elites!*G*

George's suggestions are good, but you might want to keep your eye open for

Leif

My bad, Ruth, I guess I am still stuck in the past. Saw 11 June and read it as 11 July. No wafting on your part, but on mine it is another matter!*G*

Leif

into every nook and cranny.

pretty kinky there, Leif... you been sniffing LDD again??

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Henry (and Ruth),

I just bought a set of the 4" bowl buffs, and to be honest, if you're going to be buffing anything larger than a teacup, I would stick with that size. Here's why - when you break in the bowl buffs, as with the wheel-shaped buffs, you lose a LOT of diameter in the sanding. At least I did, when I did mine. I can't imagine having to buff a whole platter with a little-bitty plum-sized "bowl" buff!

YMMV

Buffing may need a variable speed drive for best results. I just tried out my 4" and 3" Beall bowl buffs. They clearly state in the documentation that they should be run at higher speed than the wheels. At 1750rpm for the wheels, a 4" buff should be run at about twice the speed to develop the same surface speed. The smaller buffs even faster. I found this to be true to obtain a comparable finish in comparable time. This argues for a variable speed lathe mounting of the buffing system.

Hi Ruth

Glad to see you over here again, hope you are keeping well.

I have also been buffing some of my turnings and use a high speed drill to buff bowls and platters when they are still on the lathe, but sometimes that was not possible and I used a small furnace fan motor to buff the pieces when off the lathe, I use the same buffs that I also use in the high speed drill, it is a very simple and quick way to use either one, I had a drill that was busted and used the chuck and part of the shaft. The furnace motor I got from a garage sale for 5 bucks and coupled the old drill chuck onto the motor with a simple straight coupling and grub screws, I am able to buff without being afraid that I will hit anything, with a bowl buff I can get right inside goblets or deep bowls etc., If you want to have a look I have put up a picture on one of my albums, that gives you some idea of how it looks like, it is very simple and it works for me.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

I enjoyed visiting your site. Really cool for a newbie.

Tom

What works for me is to use the Beall attachment that lets me put the bowl buffs on the lathe.

I then have both hands available for handling the workpiece.

Gord>I enjoyed visiting your site. Really cool for a newbie.