I am experimenting for the first time with buffing and quickly wrecked a little bowl using tripoli on a buffing wheel attached to a drill chuck on my lathe.
It burned right through the coats of lacquer that I applied. I then tried the white (Diamond something) on a new wheel and was very more careful. It did not burn through the lacquer but it did not make the bowl look much different either. I had applied probably 9 light coats of lacquer on the piece and sanded up to 1500 before trying the buffer. I have heard that Tripoli is equivalent to between 400 to 800 grit sandpaper. If that is true would it have been better to skip the tripoli and go right the the white "Diamond" compound?
Thanks very much,
Jim Lee
Jim,
Tripoli is a cutting compound that is a naturally occurring mineral that consists mainly of porous, decomposed siliceous rock, or diatomaceous earth, which results from the weathering of chert and siliceous limestone.
White diamond is an intermediate compound that is between cutting and polishing. It is made from tin oxide mixed with a binder wax. While it is finer than tripoli, it still isn't fine enough to be considered a polishing compound. There are several grades of white diamond depending on its fineness. The white diamond that is available to woodturners is the coarsest grade.
Tripoli and white diamond are two of many different cutting and intermediate compounds that are primarily used in metal polishing as preliminary steps before actual buffing.
Buffing compounds include red rouge, yellow rouge, white rouge, black rouge, green rouge, blue rouge, and zam.
If you buy the Beale buffing tools, it includes tripoli, white diamond, and carnauba wax. Carnauba wax is the hardest of all natural waxes. Also the mops in the Beale set are different for each of the three materials. The instructions say to barely use any compound or wax when charging the wheels. Also, no more than very light pressure should be used when using the mops to polish wood.
Having said all that, I am a contrarian who doesn't like and no longer uses that type of polishing for wood. I have had a Beale System for about a dozen years and haven't used it in probably a decade. One reason for my dislike is that loose abrasives are used and while this type of polishing is fine for metal where the compounds can be cleaned up, the loose abrasive embed themselves in wood pores or in soft film finishes and cause discoloring. They also don't level a surface ... they just shine up the surface imperfections. So, if the lacquer finish has orange peel or pinholes or overspray, the polishing mops just shine up those imperfections so that they are more noticeable.
