I'm wondering if this buffer is worth the price? I'm looking for something that spins in the 1600 rpm neighborhood (I assume that's ideal for polishing razors). If not this one, any suggestions?
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I'm wondering if this buffer is worth the price? I'm looking for something that spins in the 1600 rpm neighborhood (I assume that's ideal for polishing razors). If not this one, any suggestions?
If you have room for the Caswell 3/4 hp buffer at 1100 rpm, it will take care of all your needs and not break the bank.
Have fun.
from what I can tell, its like a fordom jewelry style motor. It would work find for final polish work, but I dont think it will have the "umph" to do any kind of stock removal.
Lynn,
I appreciate the tip, but for me, at $260 (if I'm looking at the correct one), it will break the bank. I've seen so many grinders that spin at 3600 rpm for under $100 I was hoping to find an 1100 rpm buffer at about the same price. Not looking like it though...
Big box stores have 2 speeds for around $80.
I would be concerned that the length of the tapered spindles would be to short and also that the slowest speed is so high.
The cheap buffer/grinders at stores like Home Depot and Harbor freight are exactly that. Cheap. But they WILL get the job done on a budget, and its a lot nicer to decide "I dont want to do this anymore" if you have only spent 80 bucks as opposed to hundreds
I looked at Home Depot and the HF website but all I saw where high speed (3600 rpm) grinders, no polishers in the 1100 rpm range. Would you happen to have a link or a name to one of the polishers?
Personally, I have never seen one that runs that slow in any of the major stores.
Let see what others have to say.
So far I have yet to find a low speed buffer in an affordable price range. The only thing that I have found is the Caswell buffer that Lynn recommended. Before I plop down $260 is there a less expensive buffer out there that spins at about 1100 rpm or is this pretty much my only choice? If so I'll buy it but I would sure like to test the waters with something a bit less 'industrial' (aka expensive).
Like I said above, most big box home stores carry the two speed Delta or equivelent, which runs at 3600 and 1750. Priced around $80. You will not find anything, other than the spendy ones, that run at 1100. Harbor Freight has two speeds for less than the Delta, and not quite as good quality. If you use smaller wheels, you get an effective lower foot per minute speed, which is what you want. I use a Delta at 1750 and 4 inch wheels. This works just fine. The advantage of the spendy one is that you can use 6 or 8 inch wheels, and the greaseless compound will last longer before you need to re-apply.
Good luck!
If you try using greaseless compound (and you will) you're going to burn out the motor applying the compound. You will not be happy with 1/6 horsepower, I guarantee you.
I bought the cheapo harbor freight orange buffer and have run two blades from emory-scatchless compound and got great results. Coming from buffing paint on cars; which is a hell of a lot easier to burn through, anything under 3,500rpm is fine, I usually ran mine between 2,000-2,500rpm. You're only just barley moving the razor over the wheel not pushing it in like a dremel felt pad; if you do that it's going air born. If you have to put much pressure on the wheel, then you need to reapply your compounds. As far as greaseless compound, just dunk the blade in water every other pass and don't try and use it like a grinding wheel and you'll be fine. These are the same buffers in Glen's workshop as well. The greaseless compounds are like paste sandpaper for removing surface imperfections, not regrinding the razor.
Here are some other alternatives...........
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...ng-razors.html
http://straightrazorpalace.com/workshop/88502-tapered-thraded-mandrel-buffer-sander-finished.html
and here.....
http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...on-sander.html
I appreciate the links but 'build it yourself' buffers are way beyond my limited abilities! I think I'm going to go the safe but expensive Caswell route. I hate to drop the money but I do like the idea of an 1100 rpm turnkey solution :)
Thanks for all of the tips, it was greatly appreciated.
I'm getting ready to buy the buffer but I have a quick question about the wheels. Should I get the loose cotton 6"x1/2" shown here?
I use those loose wheels only with red rouge for final polishing, but only because I already had them. I prefer sewn cotton wheels for the red and white rouge and sisal for anything coarser than that (emory or greaseless compounds).
Just like Columbo, one more thing...
I was looking at the stickies on polishing but really couldn't tell what kind of polish to get for this buffer. I'll have two wheels so I guess that I need to get one courser and one finer but I have no clue as to paste, bar, type, grit. Does Caswell have anything that I can buy along with the buffer?
For less than industrial scale throughput I have had great results with buffing wheels on a variable speed power drill and a magnetic jig.
I actually inherited about 1,000 razors (yes, 1,000) that I want to clean so I guess you could say I'm at the industrial scale. This is why I don't mind spending the money on a quality buffer that will speed the process. I just want to make sure that I'm getting what I need to get the job done.
I have this buffer I used to polish some aluminum and other items. You can bog it down easy with thick metals and lots of pressure. It dose spin faster than what you want. Part of polishing metal is getting it hot enough to be polished. I tried to cold polish and it did not work with a crap once I let the metal get warm enough mirror like shine. I also have this stand while it looks cheap it is solid and wont tip over very easily.
Casewell certainly has the polishes you need. But you need to determine what you need first!
I assume you want the greasless compounds? Fomax is what caswell sells I think?
We are clearly operating in different leagues! So now we know what you will be doing for the next few years:gl:Quote:
Originally Posted by spinsheet
From the How To's that I saw my assumption was that I needed the red and white rouge, is that greasless? I really don't know what Fomax is.
Yeah, my wife looked at all that and just rolled her eyes. She used to love the fact that I don't watch sports, now she's seeing the trade off...
The name is Formax, not Fomax.
Most buffing compounds are held together with "grease" ( fats/wax/etc) and area bit of a mess to work with. A lot of guys prefer to use the greaseless buffing compound made by Formax instead. But the greaseless requires you to apply the compound to the wheel then let it dry and thats a bit of a pain also. Tradeoffs.........
If you have 1000 razors to work on Then I seriously suggest that you visit a razor restorer that is within a few hours drive and see how it is done first. The first name that comes to mind is Joed ....
http://straightrazorpalace.com/members/joed.html
Send him an email and PM and make a serious try to visit him & get an idea of what your getting into before you buy anything else.
There may be others closer to you but Joed names is the first that comes to my mind. He has lots of experience.
Hope this helps :)