Thread: How to use Dico compound on felt Dremel wheel?

The scratches you see may be left overs from previous grits that where never quite removed. If I'm not very thorough, I find they can show up two grits further up the scale, coming into focus when the background "noise" of scratches is reduced by the finer grits.

[emoji33]I wouldn't use a Dremel to do anything on a straight razor. Just ain't safe!!

Are you using the ¼ inch felt wheels?

You have to keep them moving or they will dig in, better yet double them up to ½ inch you will just need a longer screw for your mandrel.

Get a 4mm sheet of craft foam, a dollar at a craft store and use that as a work surface, pressing on the blade with one hand will imbed the edge in the foam and there is no chance of the buffing wheel catching on the edge, you also cannot cut yourself if hand sanding.

Post of picture of your wheel set up.

Also use the slowest speed possible on the Dremel high speed, pressure and grit will gouge, keep it moving let the grit do the work not pressure.

You can use a Dremel, plenty of folks have and still do, slow speed and lots of caution. If thing go bad they go bad quickly. Be careful.

Originally Posted by Substance

Sorry all hand sanding here
I go to 5000 grit wet & dry then autosol
I have also used the dremel felt buff a couple of times but only with the autosol usually for pits etc
But not keen real yet with it

Here's what it looks like now, after 3000 grit wet and dry, and Maas:






I haven't yet gotten the hang of the Dremel sanding or buffing. The sanding drums leave waves of depressions in the metal, and the felt buffers with Dico compound leave rough scuff marks. I must be doing something wrong. I Don't know what it is.

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Below, I'll put in three picture of a blade with the waves of depressions left by the sanding drums (240 grit). This is the first blade I started restoring, a few days ago. It is a 5/8 W&B wedge. It had a bad chip and deep pitting. I wasn't sure it was salvageable. I started with it because I thought it potentially the least valuable of my razors, and I wanted to make the worst first learning mistakes on a less valuable blade. I progressed with it only as far as these photos show when the mailman delivered the F. R. Reynolds pictured at the top of this post.

The first picture shows the waves of depressions near the spine on the half of the blade toward the heel:



The second picture shows the waves of depressions near the spine close to the toe:



The third picture shows the waves of depressions on the reverse side of the blade, near the spine close to the toe:



Do other restorers ever use sanding drums with a Dremel? Is there a good way to do it? For now, I'm just avoiding the sanding drums, going with hand sanding instead--as I did with that F. R. Reynolds at the top of this post.

The little W&B wedge will be very small indeed by the time I finish with it. I imagine it will be usable for shaving, though.

Joe

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Are you using the ¼ inch felt wheels? . . . Post of picture of your wheel set up.

The wheels are 1 inch in diameter and 3/8 in width. For the emery, I was also using a pointed felt tube that looks like the front end of a rocket ship:

Get a 4mm sheet of craft foam, a dollar at a craft store and use that as a work surface, pressing on the blade with one hand will imbed the edge in the foam and there is no chance of the buffing wheel catching on the edge, you also cannot cut yourself if hand sanding.

Thanks. That's a good tip. I'm using a hardwood base with embedded rare-earth magnets. I tried putting self-adhesive felt over the magnets to keep them from scratching the blade. But I use WD 40 with wet and dry paper, and the felt got gunky fast. Took me a long time to clean off the glue from it. Now, I'm using a 1/8 inch thick sheet of plexiglass over the magnets. I'll try the foam.

Also use the slowest speed possible on the Dremel high speed, pressure and grit will gouge, keep it moving let the grit do the work not pressure.

You can use a Dremel, plenty of folks have and still do, slow speed and lots of caution. If thing go bad they go bad quickly. Be careful.

I'll try again, keeping it moving, light touch. I had already been using the lowest rpm setting, which on this Dremel is 5,000.

Joe

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Are you using the ¼ inch felt wheels?

You have to keep them moving or they will dig in, better yet double them up to ½ inch you will just need a longer screw for your mandrel.

I looked on Amazon and don't see any threaded mandrels with threads longer than 3/8 inch. Is there some workaround for that?

Joe