Thread: Buffing wheels out of round.

Every one of my buffing wheels isn't completely round. The greaseless compound applies fine to part of it, but not all of it. Is this common?

Any way to fix this?

It's been my experiance that as I use them and "rough" them up with buffing and cleaning with the nap brush(forget what it's called) they will even out.

Is it a rake ( http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-H4383-.../dp/B0000DD6H1 ) that you're talking about? I'll need to get one. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Ducksfan

Is it a rake ( Amazon.com: Grizzly H4383 Buffing Wheel Rake w/ Handle: Home Improvement ) that you're talking about? I'll need to get one. Thank you.

Yes it is.

Paul

A wood rasp will also work.

if you can't fix them just get new set from Caswell, they have always been good and consistent quality.

+1 to buying a rake. It's an absolute "must have" if you've got a buffer set up and greaseless compounds. 1) you want to rake new wheels before applying the compound, and 2) after a time, the compound will slide off your wheel really quickly when buffing....which means it's time to rake again.

+1 to Caswell's wheels. They have consistent products (at least in my experience). They have a great 4" wheel that is 7/8" wide. I haven't seen them advertised, but if I ask nicely and pay a tad extra they seem to make their way into the shipping box. I keep a couple extra on hand (unraked and new) because I like them.....

Thanks for looking out for me. I'm new to the SR community and I've got the bug. Keeps me out of trouble.

One of the first things is to check that there is a good fit in the center hole with the arbor. Sometimes the center hole is not quite on-center, or isn't quite the correct fit and needs a spacer to true things up.

A rake/rasp is best for removing old compound, as in you only have a few wheels but need to use a wider range of grit sizes. This is not optimum because there may be a heavy grit left behind that goofs up the lower grit on the next pass. You should have a set of wheels for each grit so that doesn't happen. I do remember a day when I couldn't afford that though and making-do is a fine tradition.

To true up a wheel you need to remove the high spots. This next idea must be done with care as you are bringing two rotating tools into contact with each other. A dremel tool (or other sort of side/angle grinder) with a fairly coarse wheel plus turn on the buffer and very easily close in on the turning buffing wheel. The dremel wheel will remove some of the buffing wheel as the high spot rotates around without removing more of the low spots. Move back and forth across the face of the buffing wheel. You should fairly rapidly notice less vibration (from the buffing wheel being out of round) from the buffer.

Otherwise you'll have to make a compass big enough to identify the high spots where the wheel is out of round and trim that away by other means, but there always seems to be some irregularity left over. The abrasive wheel with a rotating buffer works pretty well, but you have to get over being nervous about doing it.

And this needs to be done carefully as both tools can produce exciting random events...