Thread: I just went greaseless

My local industrial supply shop was able to order in some Formax compounds from grits 80, 120, 240, and 320. I found it cheaper to get the starter kit with four grits than buying each one individually. It saved me about 8 dollars if I remember right. I got some stiff sewed 4" cotton wheels and set up the grinder. My grinder runs at 3100 RPM so I think that I have the speed and wheel size matched up okay. Loading it up was a lot messier than I though but that is okay. A little mess means I am doing something, right?

Well I put a razor on it and just wow! It saved me hours of hand sanding and was just plain fun to do. I have done a lot of reading on the greaseless compounds here thanks to everyone that has posted how to use it. A couple questions have arisen.

How do you store the compound? Plastic bag with a wet paper towel on the exposed end?

How do you store the wheels when not is use? Can they keep in a sealed plastic bag or to they need air when not in use?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Marc

Definitely as air-tight as possible. I'll be interested in what others say about the wet paper towel. They are much harder to use when they dry out. I have used a shot of WD40 on them when they start to dry out, before applying to the wheels. 4 inch is the right size for a 3100 R
PM machine. 1750 and 6 inch also works.

I just chop off a hunk of each chub of compound and give it its own little round plastic container (the ones I have are the ziploc semi-disposable ones with blue lids.) Each has a label. This way, the worst that could happen is 1/4 of a chub could get dried out (or melted - I do my buffing out on the balcony.) The rest of the compounds are double-bagged in the back of the fridge with post-it notes reading "Not food!"

4-inch buffs fit beautifully in paper CD/DVD sleeves. I use ones with windows, and since I write the grit on each buff with a sharpie, I know exactly what I'm looking at.

Great idea Ecl with cutting a chunk off and the CD sleeve. And thanks for confirming my thoughts on wheel size and speed skipnord. So far I have a 6/8 Wade and Butcher worked up to 240. I was going to go crazy with trying to hand sand the majority of the pits out.