Brian,

Purchase an extension cord, and on the female end, wire it to a receptacle. Wire the receptacle to a 600W dimmer for a ceiling fan. Your buffer will lose some torque on the lower end, but you'll have a variable speed buffer for about $15.

There is a workshop thread a couple pages back about it, with pics. The person who did it is TrilliumLT, and he says it works pretty slick.

Maybe this is a quick and dirty solution for you.

Hope this helps.