Hi folks, I haven't used my Beal Buffing System for quite some time and can't remember the optimum speed. The Beal web site says something about 1725 RPM but that seems awful fast for buffing ?? Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
I found it interesting to find recently that Russ Fairfield and I had independently come to find that a speed around 1200rpm was most suitable for each of us.
In the end, it is not a specific speed, but the interaction of the static characteristics of the wheel (stiffness due to number of plies and amount of stitching; coarseness or the fabric), the dynamic characteristics (surface speed determined by both the size of the wheel and the rpm;centrifigal force developed), the compounds or lack of compounds loaded on the wheel surface, and how hard you are pressing against the wheel that will effect your buffing.
For the 8/9 inch wheels of the Beall and Wood N Things buffers, I've found 1200 rpm to be optimal, but anywhere from 900 to 1800 is probably acceptable, depending on your presentation technique (i.e., don't push so as hard at either the very low (the wheels will collapse or deflect) or very high (the friction will excessive and excessively burn and/or abrade your finish) speeds.
Keep in mind that almost no dedicated stationary buffers are multispeed, and that most motors are set up for approximately 1725 or 3450 (often rounded to 1750/1800 and 3600). Beall is really saying use the slower of the two standard fixed speeds for your 8/9 inch wheels and the faster for his small diameter bowl/goblet buffs. If you are using the lathe for your buffing drive, you have the choice of a wide variety of speeds, and can just select the one which gives you the most desirable characteristics. For me, that is around 1200 for the bigger 8/9 inch wheels and around 1800-2400 for most small bowl goblet buffers.
Lyn
Alan wrote:
It's very much like grinding. It depends on how fast you move your turned piece/tool-to-be-ground and how much heat you want to generate. While you don't want to generate much heat in the grinding process, you do want to generate enough heat to melt the various waxes used in the compounds so the polishing agents (or just the carnauba in that case) will do their thing. The faster you can move your turned piece around to buff it, the faster you can have your RPMs. In fact, the faster you move your turned piece around, the faster you *need* the RPMs so that enough heat will be generated to work. ahhh, but not TOO much heat or you'll go right through your finish!
Generally, I buff at 1000 to 1500 RPM but may drop down to 500 on the insides of hollow forms or in particularly sensitive areas like sharp edges where it's really easy to go through a finish. I'll go up to the 1800s on flat easy areas when I'm in a hurry or using a high-carnauba wax mixture.
- Andrew
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