Buffing wheel choice ?

[purpleknif]

Ready to finish polishing mt Liney 5. Got the diamond paste but don't know if I should get an open or spiral buffing wheel. Which one will work best ?

Thanks

 

[Blogwitch]

What is the diamond paste for?

Unfortunately, if you want to make a half decent job of it, it must be carried out correctly, using the right techniques and materials at the right time otherwise you will just end up with highly polished mishaped lumps of metal. If done correctly, you will end up with a lustre that is miles deep and not one rounded off corner on the workpiece.

Normally you start with a stitched wheel using the correct soap compound for the material you want to buff up.

Once you get things smoothed off with a bit of a shine on it, then you swap to a softer unstitched wheel with a very fine soap compound, again specifically for the material you are working with.

Just a word of warning about using a polishing system. It won't get rid of machining marks. Unfortunately, I must admit that it will, but the finished result will be absolutely abysmal. You MUST remove ALL surface imperfections first, before introducing it to the polishing system, otherwise all you will get are highly polished undulations on the surface.

Have a read of this from Caswell, it will give you an insight in what is required to get a decent result. I think Caswell are also in the US.

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffman.htm

I hope this helps.

John

 

[Swifty]

What John said. I have 4 different rouges/soap, all different colours for different applications. I also have some flat wooden sticks that I glue emery or wet and dry paper on to get rid of machining marks.

Paul.

 

[ShopShoe]

My two cents worth:

What wheel(s) and compound(s) you use also depends on what material you are polishing: Steel?, Iron?, Brass?, Bronze?, Plastic? For best practice you change wheels when you change compounds.

What John said:

It is easy to round off corners and turn carefully-made details into highly polished approximations of what you started with. Practice is required.

--ShopShoe

 

[gus]

Here's the results of buffing. It made the DIY Rotary Table look presentable for foto taking.
The turning,milling and filing marks were hard to remove. Emory paper and cloth were used.
The RT stored in the three open side balcony machineshop is by now a wee bitty rusty. RT was used at least 6 times while machining the parts for Howell V-2 Engine.
RT was graduated very much later after completion.Stamping on the numbers was done very much later with a simple jig so that numbers are straight and aligned. Free hand letter and number were attempted and consistency impossible w/o stamping jig.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Have you checked the local big box store ? I think i have purchsed wheel from lowes Home depot shows buffing wheel kits and compound kits on line. carries buffing wheels and compound.

Tin

 

[purpleknif]

Got as far as buffing it with brown compound on my Harbor freight 6" buffer. Used some diamond paste in a Dremel with great results. Need a new wheel for the buffer to use with the diamond paste.

Thanks.

 

[barnesrickw]

Woodcraft sells a 0.3 um paste that I've used for my hand plane irons. I've used on acrylic and brass on the lathe. It makes a very nice mirrored surface.

 

[Swifty]

My brown compound is a general purpose one for everything, there are others that are specific for brass, aluminium, copper etc.. I have the brown, a grey, a white and a green compound.

Paul.

 

[gus]

I seldom buff my jobs. Looks like I will have to in order to take good fotos. So much to learn form the experts.
Will buy buffing wheel adapter to start with. .

 

[Swifty]

Whilst I have some buffing wheels and compound, I'm not a fan of shiny models. I would rather have a nice matt finish, hence my plans to buy a sand blaster. Unless surfaces are very good to start with, a high polish will only highlight any irregularities in the part. I mainly use the buffing wheel to remove tool marks, then go over with some fine wet and dry paper to give a flat finish.

Full size steam engines were not buffed to a high shine, and for me, a high gloss only detracts from the final model.

Paul.