Buffers and such

[Tom Mitchell]

There's no question that I'm definitely going to need a buffer sooner, rather than later.  Setting aside the obvious fact that a buffer has the potential of being extremely dangerous (how the heck would you attach a safely sheild anyway?), I'd like to make a safe AND economical purchase.  I COULD get an inexpensive  6" buffer at Harbor Freight and retrofit it with 10" or 12" buffing wheels from another supplier, but chief among my concerns are the power of the motor (1/2 HP) and the speed (3600 RPM).

 

Is the speed too fast and the power too lean?

 

Also I don't have the budget for the top-of-the-line buffers sold by Stewart-MacDonald, LMI, or Grizzly.  But I'm not convinced that the foam polishing pads that Stew-Mac sells are going to be satisfactory for my needs.

 

I'm thinking that a good buffer for guitar polishing would be low speed but (somewhat) high power.

 

I'd like advice on how to get the most value for my somewhat limited resources.

 

Thanks!

[nathan clark]

I have the shop fox arbor.  I really like it.  10" wheels and 3 speed settings (I typically run it at around 800rpm).  I picked up a really old motor that took an entire work day to get up and running.  I do this for a living so in retrospect I could have found more profitable ways to spend that time.  In the end, I'm really happy with what I have.

[nathan clark]

My arbor has 12" wheels, sorry for any confusion.

[MarkinCO]

I recently went down this same road to find an economical buffer setup. Yes, I did spend less money by building it myself but the time and headache was not worth it for me as I knew nothing about pulleys, ratios, flanges, arbor shafts with right and left hand threads, etc . If I had to do it over again I would have bought the Shop Fox arbor or the one at Stew Mac.

Here are a couple of sites that helped me when learning about pulleys, rpms, belts, etc.

pulley and rpm calculator

 

pulleys and belts

 

Good luck!

[FRANK]

its not only about HP it is also RPM and also Amps and or watts ? I was fortunate to find a Baldor Buffer used for $500 bought with it a stand for $25 and bingo was his Name O . I found this item locally there is a reconditioning shop for power tools and I hope you can find the same or better keep looking stay far away from harbor freight when looking for power tools with an exception for air brushes 

 

[William F.Eden]

 You don't need a safety sheild unles you are going to try and buff with the strings on and that is not a good idea .And you don't want a foam polishing pad .I have a twin 14" buffer 1" shaft runing at 1700 Rp 1/4 horse power belt driven and you can stop it with out any troble if you push on it . Save your money until you can get the right tool. Good luck Bill................

[Mark A. Kane]

One of my very favorite quotes of all time comes from John Ruskin: "When you pay too much for something, you lose a little money, that is all...but when you pay too little you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought may be incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do". I've learned this the hard way and now I don't mind scratching a check to have something done right, or to obtain the tool which will do the job without any question and with capacity to spare. Save your money for the real deal. The first time you buff a guitar you'll get it, and will not regret spending the cash.

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Tom. I'm an amateur too and almost all of my work as been repairs. So far, I haven't felt the need for a buffer. It would be nice but I have a very limited budget and it's way down the list of things I will spend money on.  A lot of what I do is French Polish and lacquer. I've been experimenting with applying lacquer like a french polish. It has to be very thin and it won't flash like shellac but the couple of times I've use it, I was please with the results.  I usually buff  everything out by hand. It's not so fast but time isn't such a factor for me since I don't need to make a living doing this. My finish isn't a mirror finish but on repairs that's not necessarily all that desirable unless the instrument is very new and very little that I've worked on is very new.

 

 I guess that what I'm saying is that you might spend a bit more time considering what you are going to be doing and what your needs are, tool wise. There are a lot of hand tools that you could get for the price of a good buffer. In another post you mentioned getting a buffer soon and putting off getting a airbrush. In my humble opinion, that sounds backwards. I've had a lot more use for an airbrush then I have a buffer.

 

This may be redundant but I would recommend that you inventory what that you have in tools and look at their uses and their quality. Do you have wood chisels? You don't need the best, most expensive japanese set but a good quality set will make a difference. You will also need some sharpening system of some sort to keep thing working, There are a lot, some expensive and some not so. You need to work this out.  Hand planes of different sizes and styles are very handy for many things. Saws. There are many types of hand saws that you may have a use for. On power saws, a band saw is very handy but expensive. You can also get by with a scroll saw for a lot of things.  A belt sander of some sort is very handy for flattening and shaping. A Dremel tool is something you will find a lot of use for.

 

I don't know what you have so this may be a waste of good cyberspace but I'm just saying that starting out in this, there are a lot of things you may have more use for than a buffer.

 

Ned 

[Charlie Hoffman]

My shop has a Baldor which runs at 1700 with a 12" wheel.  Conventional wisdom says that is too fast and it probably is but a little bit of experience and practice has shown us the "touch" needed to make this work.  The good news is that Baldor equipment is BULLETPROOF!!!  Mine has been in daily use for probably 15 years with absolutely no problems.  I hand mine upside down from the wall which gives good clearance to maneuver the guitar.  There is a photo on my web site.  http://www.hoffmanguitars.com/tt-1001.jpg

The important thing with a buffer is to work on the bottom quadrent of the wheel.  I think of it as the 3 - 6 o'clock section.  This makes it much less likely that the buffer will grab the instrument.

[Rory]

Hey, just my 2 cents- everyone has their own opinions...

Get the buffer, hang off on fancy chisels, etc. I barely ever use chisels in my shop but I use the buffer all the time for repair, touchup and new builds. If your making only one guitar, sure try & hand polish it but it will take a long time and a lot of repetitive work. If planning on doing more than one guitar, save your hands, arms and shoulders and tons of time and get the buffer. I didnt spend too much time at it, but any hand rubbed finish I've done never got close to the professional gloss quickly achieved with the buffer. You can build a beautiful technically perfect guitar but sadly, the finish is the first thing the customer really sees. A buffer is not all that expensive and the buffing compound sticks wear so slowly, it looks like the first ones I bought will last beyond my time on this earth.

 

Oh, by the way, the fox buffer model has three different pulley sizes, so you can vary the buffing speed with the same motor attached- very useful and doesnt require a variable speed motor. I got my motor for $25 or something used & still going strong.

 

Rory

[Frank Ford]

The most significant large tool purchase we've made in the last couple of decades was our Grizzly buffer.  It's a big 'un, three phase, 5 HP, and variable speed.

 

Previously we used the Baldors (we actually have two 1-HP) with different size buffs to achieve different surface speed.

 

The big Grizzly goes from 100 to 1500 RPM with high torque at the low speeds, so you can really lean on it if you want to.  The variable speed feature is super important to us these days with all the different finishes we encounter in repair.  Until  you experience it, there's no way I can fully describe the advantages - the buffs simply behave differently at very low speeds, acting much to polish rather than cutting, grinding, glazing or melting the finish.

 

[Mark A. Kane]

I'm saving my money for one of these:

 

http://youtu.be/u5sB5mNFOMk