Buffing System

You can buy it from Beall.... :-)

Yea.. too bad I already bought the standard setup. They do say it won't work with the standard wheels.

Jimbo - go back to Beall and buy their spindle. It has a tapered end to fit inyour headstock drive, and the other end is dimpled for your tailstock revolving center. It has nuts and stuff to position the disks along the shaft. This works well for smaller items, but for larger bowls - - you'll need to change 'em out either on the lathe or on a motor.

Two cheap/free double-shaft motors - or 3, and you can set up the goblet buffs on the opposite end, and mount the whole on one of those rotating triangle stands... Not that I've done that yet (some days, you could practically afford to do it with two or 3 old shopsmiths and have double-shaft variable speed - some days they go cheap...)

I dislike the geometry of the 3 on one shaft arrangement as far as getting the inside of bowls, and I do bowls. If you don't care about insides, it may not matter much.

Jim... I'm guessing that you got the adapter with the wheels, so each wheel threads on and off?

I was actually building a 3 motor system and stopped when Chuck, my mentor, suggested that I practice changing wheels a bit before taking up all that room... He was right... Once you get into the "groove", it takes about 10 or 15 seconds to change the wheel... When you've done the 1st wheel, just spin it off... if you want more speed, turn the hand wheel the other direction and it comes off faster.. *g*

I put a plastic washer on each wheel, just on loose after the nut on the wheel to prevent it from over tightening on the adapter... When I put the next wheel on, I just start the thread and spin it to get it seated, then turn on the lathe... that does the rest of the tightening while I'm getting the next stick or picking up the bowl...

Another reason the I didn't buy or build the 3 wheel rod is that I saw several disadvantages to it:

How far do you have to separate the wheels to be able to buff a bowl without hitting a nearby wheel?

How large a bowl can you buff? I tend to swing the bowl back and forth while buffing the inside.. I can get a pretty good swing on the "outside" of the wheel as long as I'm aware of the center bolt head... With the rod setup, I couldn't swing the bowl further than I can now on the "adapter" side of the wheel..

Unless you have the 3 wheel setup on a bench or something with it's own motor, how long would/wood it take to mount/unmount it from your lathe? I have the Morse taper adapter but usually just hold the adapter in the Talon chuck, since it's already on the lathe... either taper or chuck is very fast and no tail stock to get in the way..

Buff a few turnings and see if you really need a different setup.. I thought that I did, too.. YMMV Mac

Here is a link to one I built. It uses 3/4" all thread.

I did get the adapter so each wheel does need to be threaded on and off.

What you say makes a lot of sense about how long it takes to mount the

I was looking at trying to make the 3 wheel system at least 36" long to avoid the problem of hitting the wheel next to it while buffing. It looked like the system Beall sells is much shorter than that.

I guess I will continue to use it as is but I'll see what Mr. Hart has to offer. I'll post some pictures if I venture further with the 3 wheel system (not here though)

Thanks,

Jim

At the risk of getting someone in trouble...

I have a single buff adapter which mounts on the lathe spindle thread. It takes one buff and they thread on.

I'm using a VFD driven lathe so... I get the first buff started on the thread and hit start. As it ramps up, with a little help from me holding the buff, it screws itself on and I'm off and running.

When it is time to change, I reverse the lathe. It slows down stops, I grab the buff and as it ramps up in reverse, the buff unscrews into my hand.

I reverse it again and by the time it is ready to start in the forward direction I have the next one ready to go on. If all goes well and I can get the thread started quickly, there is no need to hit stop.

However -- I tried that on a friend's lathe which was being driven by a DC variable speed drive. I found out the hard way on those that you can't do flying direction changes -- it blows all the fuses.

Bill

Jimbo wrote:

That's why I have the plastic washer/spacer on the bolt, so I can turn the wheel a few revolutions to make sure it's not cross threaded (not happy with steel bolt and aluminum adapter) and then just turn the lathe on.. the lathe spinning does most of the work and the washer prevents it from over tightening, as it got a good "snap" without the washer...

As I said before, with a little practical use, I think that you'll find that a few seconds to change wheels in not a bad thing...

If I was in a really big hurry, I'd but 2 more adapters and just chuck them, but for me, being in a hurry is not only unsafe but changes turning from a hobby to production...

Mac