New Buffing Wheel for Lathe Projects

Similar to the Beall Wood (3 wheel) buffing system, we put together a 4 wheel system for use with the DMS lathes. Sure, the Beall system is nice, but this one has a few advantages; it has a 4th wheel for finer polishing, AND it was $45 less.

Want to use this to polish your bowls, turning projects, and resin items? Great, here is what you need to know (pictures included).

1- The wheel set and polishing compounds are in the unlocked (leftmost) steel cabinet in the woodshop.
2- They need to be set up with the 2MT Jacobs chucks that are in the Jet lathe cabinet, and used in conjunction with a standard live center on the tailstock.
3- They are to be used only with the compounds noted directly on each buffing wheel, please do not cross contaminate these! They are to be used in order as follows: 1- brown, 2- white, 3- red, 4- polishing paste or wax. Also, it is very easy to overload the buffing wheels so when you apply compounds or finishing agents, please use a very light touch (I’m talking less than 1 second of application at 1000rpms). Its always easier to add more if needed.
4- Use both hands when buffing a project, and do not put too much pressure on the buffing wheel. Light pressure is sufficient to polish the item, and too much could result in your item being pulled out of your hands due to friction. I’ve seen it happen several times.
5- When finished, please put the buffing wheel and compounds away where you found them.


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Call me a pessimist but the count down to this starts…now.

THANK YOU for adding this :+1:

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Yeah,

Cross contamination is going to be a pain. But, likely not the end of the world. Thanks for setting this up, it will likely serve 90% of us beautifully. Those very concerned about cross contamination will I’m sure purchase and maintain their own setup.

As someone that has done larger metal polishing is their any concern on the rod bending? Or would we considering the rod as disposable and replacing it on a regular basis?

Thanks for doing this, excited to see how it is used.

Tick tock…

I basically just copied my design from home and have had zero issues. Its a half inch steel rod and the exposed amount of it is roughly 16 inches in length. I’d be surprised if someone’s project actually bent the rod as my experience has been the torque will rip the project out of your hand before you can exert that much force.

going to edit above- #5- use both hands and don’t push too hard as this will legit rip a project out of your hands.

that’s just part of the finishing process…“Durability test” if it can fly across the shop and not nick the finish its good to go :smile:

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That is cool

Thanks for the build.

Will these instructions be housed anywhere else (e.g. Wiki)? Or will they remain in a Talk post for posterity? Not throwing stones… I’m not altogether clear on how to find these helpful articles when I am ready to actually do a thing.

I also think a poster above the lathe with clear instructions would be the cat’s pajamas

Those are really good ideas! Since I suck at the Wiki, and other than an ill formatted poster on Word, who wants to make those?

I have some Testors enamel paint in various colors: would it be helpful to paint the relevant color on the washers for each disk to help remind users which rouge to use on each disk?

@Lordrook, if you’d like me to, I can bring the paints in this week.

I’m not going to say no, but if folks can’t read the colors or numbers I’ve written on the wheels, will they bother to look at the color codes?

And to answer the previous question, it was less than a week.

Does anyone have any knowledge as to what this gray material is? I’m guessing it’s possibly metal of some sort and I’m very confused as to why Metal was being polished/buffed on a wheel designed to work on wood or resin items. That will most likely push metal particulates into a turned wood project and leave gray smudging.

Additionally, I’m very confused as to why the compounds were used out of order when the buffing wheels were CLEARLY numbered and labeled as to which compound should be used on which wheel.

This is why we cant have nice things and exactly why I won’t have resin available as a consumable. One week guys. One week.

Grey could be jewelry polish.

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It was kind of crusty and hard, is that also a thing jewelry polish does?

BTW folks, jewelry has their own buffing wheels…

I need to use it. Will see if you are there to show me how to get it on the lathe

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I mean, its not in optimal shape right now, but 3 of the 4 wheels are usable. you’ll just have to skip the white compound part for now.

BTW folks. @jnorine has offered to hit up Harbor Freight to get a replacement wheel for the gray one. Thank you John, you rock.

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I hope to be there after work today. Steve showed Nick Webb and I how to mount it and use it yesterday.

On another note, I believe the buffing wheels can be cleaned pretty well using a 36 grit KMG sanding belt. Or so YouTube says…

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There is also a rake you can get specifically to pull apart the fibers when they get gunked up.

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I’ll probably have the replacement wheel there on Tuesday (3/19) - don’t think I can make it to the space today.