Buffing bowls & deep vessels

[Col Smith]

G'day all,

I recently commented that deep bowls could not be buffed on the Beale 3 wheel buffing system.
After not being able to find a supplier of mandrel extension in Aus I decided to make my own. They are available in USA for $27 plus P&H.

Made these to fit my Vicmarc chuck, but can be made to fit any jaws.
For the 20cm wheels I turned a tapered cylinder, reduced the end to 20mm to fit the wheel, added a large washer, drilled out the end to take a Tek screw.
For the ball fitting I turned a tapered cylinder, drilled out the end to take a nut which I made a tight fit & added thick CA glue to fix . Then just threaded the ball on.
The only drawback is having to change the wheel for each compound used, but I don't find that a hassle.

HTH someone

Col

 

[W Jack Young]

necessity the mother of invention 😉

 

[Odie]

Great idea Colonel.......will keep that in mind when I have the need. Thank you......

ooc

 

[Bill Boehme]

Great idea. I'm basically phrugal (frugal is cheap, but phrugal is somehow different) so this idea should come in handy.

..... The only drawback is having to change the wheel for each compound used, but I don't find that a hassle.....

Surely there must be enough wood in Aus to make one for each of your buffs. 🙄

Of course, that wouldn't be phrugal.

 

[Michael Poorman]

That is a great idea! I'm in the planning stages of building a buffing stand. While I don't believe I'll be able to easily adapt your idea to my upcoming project, I'll be caught trying!

 

[Jerry Bailey]

good idea, the really cool aspect about this,
you can make the mandrels any length you want, not bound to the 4,8,& 12" they sell in the stores

 

[John Tisdale]

3" hand held buffer

You might take a look at Detroit Tools 3" palm-style buffer. The pad is hook-loop and you can affix a wool or foam as needed. I can one-hand it to rub-out the final finish on large works. It's fairly high speed - 10,000 rpm free running. But being a 3" and easily slowed with application pressure, it's ideal for the type of surfacing we do on wood finishes.
I also use it for the final power sand on the lathe - the advantage is that you can start with 120 or even 80 and, with a hard interface pad, apply very light pressure which minimizes digging in. Progress to maybe 180 and your ready to transition to a dual action.
For dual-action sanders, the AirVantage from Bruce Hoover's Sanding Glove is a great tool. Costing a few hundred $ less than a Dynabrade, the 3" and 5" with 1/32" orbit make it the sander of choice for fine work. These are great tools for stationary work - I would never use a dual-action on a running lathe. Bruce also sell the Grex buffer which is a pistol-grip type - I much prefer the palm-type for control.
All these tools take a bit of air - I use an 80-gal but a 60-gal should suffice. I have no experience with 25-gal - you might have occasional intermissions.
Another advantage is that your lathe is reserved for what lathes do best - turn wood.

 

[Steve Worcester]

Beaal has the extensions, and would work a little better than the extensions you have made. Same principle, and I can see where tailoring your extensions may be of greater good when you want to buff deep bowls.