Buffing Question ?

Dan Mosley

Member
Messages
1,169
Location
Palm Springs, Ca
Regarding finishing turned bowls:

I usually have used either spray laquer or varnish/trup/oil by hand, for finishing off my wood turning projects. The other day i stopped by a garage sale late in the day after everything had been picked thru and found a buffing machine in back of the guys garage. He kept telling me it was a lathe and it looked like a ordinary grinder motor at first glance. The motor is Baldor and it does say buffing lathe on it. So we struck a deal at $100.00 for the motor, a case of router bits, a box load of wax, buffing wheels, a small foredom carver with some bits, table saw stand (extension for long wood),and a drill press vice clamp.
The foredom carver is what i really wanted - $10.00 and is old but works very well, one speed but serves my purpose of enhancing cracks for filling etc.- The buffing machine is a nice addition to my wood tools and now im going to have to learn how to use it.....LOL

Question: I have never used a buffing machine before. Does anyone own a machine like this one because im not sure how to remove the wire wheel from the one end ? (picture below). It has a handle on it that will swing upward but in doing so is not releasing the shaft on the wire wheel.
Can anybody tell me what wax is what? in the pic below i have layed them out so maybe someone can identify which is which.
How to charge and polish using these wheels and waxes?

Didnt really need the router bits and thinking of getting rid of them so i included a pic of them if anyone is interested let me know. There is one bit that is missing but the rest are brand new.
 

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I'm not sure I can answer any of your questons, but looks like a pretty good score to me. The router bits alone are probably worth the $100 - if they are quality bits. I've seen RB's for sale at Lowe's for $20-$30 each...
re the wire wheel, sounds like the lever is a release, but may be slipping and not releasing the brush shaft.. I don't have anything like this, so I'll be no help.

You have a lot of waxes there that I don't recognize, but what is usually used here is tripoli, white diamond and carnuba... tripoli is reddish, white diamond is white and the carnuba usually a tannish color. The buffing wheels all look relatively small... most of the guys/gals here use either 6 or 8 inch wheels. I use a combination of both sizes.. I have a homemade 3 wheel unit on a piece of all thread that has 6" wheels and I use on my Jet mini. I also have Don Pencil's buffing system that has 8" wheels and two different sized buffing balls, that I normally use on the big lathe. I don't have a dedicated buffing system, nor do not expect to ever put one together.

Congratulations on your find... looks like a good haul to me.
 
Polish materials

Hi Dan:

Some time ago I worked as a welder for the stainless Steel food industry. We had a buffing shop with a buffer that looked like that one. Lots of small buffing wheels and compounds to make the elbows and fittings sanitary on the inside for food processing systems. That looks like it could be for the same type of thing. Hope this helps.

Joe
 
Specifications: 380WCT
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Catalog Number: 380WCT Specification Number: L35-243-160 Horsepower: 1/3-.17 Voltage: 115 Hertz: 60 Phase: 1 Amps: 3.3/2.1 RPM: 3450/1725 Insulation: B Baldor Type: 3528L Max Wheel Size: n/a Bearings: 6203 Mechanical Specification Number: L5LY0243 Electrical Specification Number: L5WG0160 UL Listed: Yes CSA Certified: Yes
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• Moisture resistant copper windings
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• Totally enclosed construction
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• Rubber feet
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• UL and CSA listed
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• 3 year warranty
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• 8 foot, 3 conductor cord with plug is standard
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Prefered by Dentists, Dental Lab Technicians, Jewelers, Lapidary and others for precision, trouble free polishing.

Catalog Number: 380WCT Description: 28L 2/4P DENTAL LATHE MTO Ship Weight: 47 lbs. List Price: $987 Multiplier Symbol: G1
Brochure
 
buffing question

You got a good deal on the motor I believe, as they are a high dollar motor,That lever is to lock the shaft so you can remove the wheels.Somebody may have hit it while the motor was running which could strip the locking pin off.Then the only way you could fix it is to figure out how to remove it and get a replacement.You could probably get hold of baldor an get a service manual for it ,or take it to a service center.It may be worth it to you as I priced there motors last yr and they started at about 600.00.As for the polishing compounds they are for metel and you don't want to use them on wood.The router bits looks like the ones sold by the after market places,Harbor Freight,plus a few others,it's hard to tell by the pic,but you could look around and get an idea before you state a price.Hope this helps.
 
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