[Jewelry making - Article 00117] - Re: [Orchid] Bench grinder and polisher

[Len and Judy Bjorkman]

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>     Is all this necessary? 

    Katou, I think it is necessary to have a suction arrangement to take
    away the worst of the fuzz+buffing compound that comes off when
    you're polishing.  

    Here's how I do it: 

    --I bought a single-side dust collector (the cheapest kind you can
    buy; I find it easier to change buffs than to move the collector back
    and forth). It has a light on it and a replaceable filter inside. 

    --Changing or cleaning the filter is tedious because you must
    unscrew the top in order to get at it. I simply leave it unscrewed
    and place three heavy bricks on the top, it keep it in place and (I
    hope) eliminate most air leakage. 

    --On the side is the air-exit screen. Over that, I duct-taped one of
    those large round aluminum things that are used to step down the
    aperture size for clothes dryer hoses (it must be larger than the
    screen area). 

    --I put flexible dryer hose onto that and attached it to an old shop
    vac (I bought that at a church rummage sale for $3). Turning on the
    shop vac is very noisy, but the suction action is much, much better
    than without it. 

    I still wear a mask over my  nose and mouth when I buff, as well as
    one of those plastic full-face shields and ear protection. Before I
    got the shop vac (and before I went to doing so much of my work by
    tumble polishing -- I absolutely agree with Judy Willingham and
    others about the wonderfulness of tumble polishing), I also would
    wear a keffiyah (to keep the compound out of my hair) and an old
    work shirt buttoned up to the top (to keep the compound off my skin
    at the neck) and with the sleeves rolled down.  I still would end up
    with black streaks on my cheeks, marking the area just outside my
    mask. 

    When I first began jewelry-making, I used our old (1950s) Kirby
    vacuum cleaner to do polishing. It can be set up with a buff, to
    polish. However, its speed is too slow to get the kind of polish
    possible with a bench grinder. Nonetheless, for a time, it worked for
    me, until I bought my bench grinder and then the dust collector
    described above. 

    One more note: in the early 1980s, when Allcraft still had a store in
    the Los Angeles area, I visited it. One of their older employees
    talked to me about White Diamond buffing compound, which I purchased
    and which remains the only buffing compound I use (on my base-metal
    jewelry). That helpful talk has saved me days of time, over the
    years, and I still remember his kindness. It's the same kindness that
    so many Orchid folks show! 

Gratefully,
Judy Bjorkman

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