I only use my flex shaft with silicon and muslin/felt buff wheels to
buff. When I learned (in a community learning class) I used a 2 wheel
buffer. I am wondering if anyone finds that the flex shaft is
adequate on it’s own or the supplement of the 2 wheel buffer is
really the best. I seem to get some waves in my work and bigger
pieces are just painful. I’m considering refitting a grinder into a
buffer.
Comments/recommendations?
Lisa
LL Fowler Designs
Fort Collins, CO 80526
You can convert a harbor freight bench grinder with the removal of
the of the wheels and side housing and the addition of the right and
left handed pointed spindles. Here is the page for the bench
grinders they have now. They have them on sale in their stores on or
the other all the time. and also in their catalog. It is a good idea
to get on the mailing list for the catalogs as the prices are lower
in them.
They also sell a stand to bolt the grinder/buffer to. For around
$30.00 I have changed over two of the 6" ones to spindle buffers.
You can make up a fan powered dust box for the back or use a shop
vacuum.
glen, been there done that and it works good.
Although I refuse to vouch for the grinders or buffers, I have two
pedestals from Harbor Freight that are perfect. I have a Baldor
grinder and a two speed Baldor Buffer mounted on these. These
machines are very expensive compared to the Harbor Freight type units
I had in the past, but worth every dollar.
You can convert a harbor freight bench grinder with the removal of the of the wheels and side housing and the addition of the right and left handed pointed spindles.
I bought a 3/4 hp Chinese made grinder for $19.95, removed what I
did not need, I plugged it in and while running I put a hacksaw on
the shaft and cut off the threaded parts on each end of the shaft,
and then the tapered spindles fit right. Several years later and it
is still going strong.
Richard Hart
I have two wonderfully effective polishers that I made from scrap
spin drier motors, they are the right speed with terrific torque and
are double ended, I have been using them for about 15 years now with
total cost of no more than UKP 5.00.
Sam Trump
I only use my flex shaft with silicon and muslin/felt buff wheels to buff...... I seem to get some waves in my work and bigger pieces are just painful
Lisa – Exactly the situation that I was in for almost 3 years. As a
hobbiest, I didn’t feel that I could or should make the investment
in a larger piece of equipment. However, E-Bay had one about 6 months
ago and I was able to pick it up at about 15 cents on the dollar,
dual shaft with the buff cones already installed and with a suction
fan and filter system. I have never been happier.
Good Luck on the conversion or an e-bay search.
Regards
RLW
A larger buffer would be helpful to you in getting large, smooth
areas to finish evenly. I use 6-inch buffs for such work. They are
good and fast for smaller work, too.
M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA
Hello,
Just adding a note about converting a bench grinder to use as a
buffer.
Be absolutely sure to incorporate some sort of powered filtered
exhaust system. Without that, there will be black fine dust all over
everything - including in your nostrils and lungs. You don’t need
that exposure. I notice that Glen mentions a “fan-powered dust
box… or use a shop vac” in his posting. VERY important to have
something to suck in those particles and trap them.
Judy in Kansas, who found out the hard way how messy and unhealthy a
converted bench grinder without a filter can be!
I second Komowkwa’s comment about using quality buffers. They don’t
lug down and maintain speed and the value of a powered filtered
exhaust is huge.
I am curious about how you use the HF pedestals - are they bolted to
the floor?
Thanks, Judy in Kansas
I bought a 3/4 hp Chinese made grinder for $19.95, removed what I did not need, I plugged it in and while running I put a hacksaw on the shaft and cut off the threaded parts on each end of the shaft, and then the tapered spindles fit right. Several years later and it is still going strong.
I left the threaded spindle on one side of mine, and I have a medium
cratex wheel mounted on it. I put the tapered spindle on the other
side for polishing wheels. It’s nice to have grinding capabilities
constantly at hand.
It’s also nice to hear that the Harbor Freight pedestals are good
and stable. I was looking at those in the catalog the other day. I’m
considering getting a rolling milll, but I have a definite lack of
space in my studio. Maybe I can move the buffing to a smaller space
(the pedestal) and use the former buffing place for the rolling
mill…
How do you folks deal with your space problems? How do you fit one
more piece of equipment into a crowded studio?
Janet Kofoed
I bought a 3/4 hp Chinese made grinder for $19.95, removed what I did not need, I plugged it in and while running I put a hacksaw on the shaft and cut off the threaded parts on each end of the shaft, and then the tapered spindles fit right.
It is very risky trying to saw a spindle while it is moving and
should not be attempted. If the blade sticks in the cut while the
spindle is turning, it can break and fire the sharp broken end into
your stomach!!!, not to mention the possibility of getting a sleeve
snagged by the rotating shaft and mangling your hand… - not a wise
thing to do. Always cut a spindle while it is stationary - if you
are fitting a push-on taper sleeve, it doesn’t matter if the end
isn’t cut exactly at a right angle. You will also probably find it
easier to cut if you strap the spindle to the motor casing with
‘gaffer tape’ (duct tape) to prevent the spindle turning while you
are cutting.
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
Lisa
You need both but if you can afford to buy only one then Flex Shaft.
But you cannot substitute the Flex Shaft for the Buffer.
Buffers are usually faster and stronger than Grinders.
Ginders use hard abrasive stones at 1725 rpm. Buffers use buffs (more
drag) and usually run at 3450 rpm with more HP or Amps.
Harbor Freight will work so will spit and elbow grease.
Every thing depends on what you want to achieve, amount of buffing &
scrathes plus most of all how much you can afford.
A used or a motor with 3450 rpm will be a lot better than any new
Chinese Motor
Kenneth Singh
46 Jewelry Supply
Almost all Harbor freight grinders run at 3450 rpm. They do have a
couple that turn slower but have a horizontal wheel for sharpening
chisels. Also most of the smaller 6" wheel dia grinders you buy are
made overseas to the US. As with most items today they are no longer
made in the USA. I don’t care what source you buy from If the
grinder is under $125.00 dollars it is made over there.
A local supplier to the jewelry trade resells a lot of Harbor
Freights jewelry, metal smith tools. As they have compared them to
the items supplied to them from their suppliers and found that they
are from the same country and probably the same factory.
A national auto parts chain sold the same type grinders, labeled
assembled in the USA. All the parts are made in China, they put the
wheels on here and put them back in the box.
A friend’s wife just got an large order for grinding wheels from
China. They are in Canada, but the grinding wheels she distributes
are made in the USA. The Chinese are having trouble getting all the
bits and pieces to make up the products they are selling to all
countries.
If you are running a buffer or any piece of motorized equipment,
6,8,10 hours day. 5 or 6 days a week you should be using an
industrial grade equipment.
Cutting the shafts off the motor is not a good idea. You can
unbalance the shaft and case early failure. Also cutting a spinning
shaft is asking for the possibility Of broken fingers, hands, wrists
ect. Not including the wounds from flying blade pieces.
The tapered spindle adapters I have fit nicely on the shafts and
only add about 2 " to the total buffer width.
And yes if you are shop wise enough to convert them double spindles
motors from washer/dryers are great and with reasonable
cleaning/lubing will last for ever.
So If you have another industrial supply house in your area. They
probably have a low cost 6" inch grinder you can convert. If they
have a web site read the spec’s for RPM ect.
here are some others
Again, all the usual disclaimers and legalize apply. I don’t work
for or own harbor Freight. P.S. they are a privately held company
and all the stores, are owned by the family that started it.
glen, been there done that, and didn’t hurt myself
In the beginning… I clamped an old power drill to my work bench
and used a lead centered muslin buff on a 1/4" bit. The drill was
parallel to the bench edge and raised on a block of wood to allow
clearance for the buff and my hands. I wore a mask and used a
cardboard box “backsplash” to catch the dust and fibers.
When he figured out I was hooked on this stuff :-), my husband set
up an old washing machine motor for me. I’ve long since purchased
more conventional equipment and real filters (still wear the mask)
but determination and ingenuity can get you going.
Pam Chott
www.songofthephoenix.com
Ian,
It is very risky trying to saw a spindle while it is moving and should not be attempted. If the blade sticks in the cut while the spindle is turning, it can break and fire the sharp broken end into your stomach!!!, not to mention the possibility of getting a sleeve snagged by the rotating shaft and mangling your hand... - not a wise thing to do.
Having done this several times, the thickness and width of the
hacksaw blade, the hacksaw frame having posts that the blade connect
to makes this pretty near impossible to happen. You are using the
polishing motor like a lathe. The shaft of the motor is soft steel.
It takes very little pressure for the blade to cut, so you are not
forcing the blade. When you are holding the saw frame, your wrist is
on the other side of the frame away from the spindle, so a sleeve
would be 4-6 inches away from the spindle.
cut both spindles this way,
I do not believe it was risky, or that I was unwise. Having said all
this, if it seems dangerous to you, do not attempt it.
Richard Hart
Richard,
Having done this several times, the thickness and width of the hacksaw blade, the hacksaw frame having posts that the blade connect to makes this pretty near impossible to happen. You are using the polishing motor like a lathe.
I too have cut metal with a hacksaw while it was spinning in the
lathe, many times - and I have had the saw blade jam and break -
several times!! I also have a scar on the heel of my hand where on
one occasion the sudden shock and loss of support caused by the
blade breaking made my hand contact the jaws of the spinning chuck.
Hacksawing cannot be compared to the action of a lathe tool as a
lathe tool is fully supported rigidly while the hacksaw is only
supported and controlled by your own muscles which are resilient and
sometimes susceptible to involuntary twitches or other movements,
particularly if your attention is momentarily distracted by
someexternal noise etc. You may well get away with it several times
but eventually such practices will bite you. I have now grown older
and wiser. I will readily admit to having taken many ‘short cuts’
and doing risky things in my life but I wouldn’t recommend that
others imitate me as I think it would be irresponsible for me to
advocate potentially dangerous procedures on a forum such as this to
people who may not have the right physical strength or positive
mental attitude to come out the other end unscathed.
Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W Wright
Sheffield UK
Hacksawing cannot be compared to the action of a lathe tool
the voice of bitter experience, you are so right. Additionally, a
hacksaw is designed to cut at slow speed. A polishing lathe, even at
low speed is turning quite fast. The surface speed of the cutting
edges quickly overwhelms the blade by friction, the blade loses
temper, deflects and breaks, or jams.
A safer way to shorten spindles (I’ve lost track, why are we
shortening spindles?) is to use a carpenter’s chop saw with a metal
cutting, abrasive disk.
Nice honest answer, ian, re doing the odd dangerous thing from time
to time. The ones we walk away from are the ones we get to tell other
folks not to do.
I thought I’d throw in my two cents worth while this thread is still
alive.
The hacksaw is designed to move through the material it is cutting.
When you do it backwards, that is, when you hold the hacksaw steady
and let the material move against the saw, the chips cannot clear
out of the gullets between the teeth. Even if you are moving the saw
slowly back and forth, perhaps hoping that heat from friction does
not build excessively in one spot on the blade, the chips will
quickly accumulate and pack into the gullets, far more than there is
room for them. A sawblade moving through the material at proper speed
produces neat little loosely curled chips in the gullets which easily
fall away as soon as there is room for them to fall out or be carried
away by the lubricant. But when the work is moving too rapidly, the
gullets get jam packed full of an overload of chips which cannot
clear. They can compress, even weld themselves together into lumps.
They can spread out sideways and jam unpredictably against the sides
of the saw cut where, in ordinary usage there would be clearance
which is designed in to reduce friction. So there can be sudden
changes, at machine-speed, in the magnitude of the forces against
which you are attempting to hold the saw frame steady. Hope I’m
making myself clear.
For the most part, at this level of hand craft we don’t have to think
about this sort of thing in mathematical detail, but people who
actually design saws have it worked out. There is a right combination
of tooth-spacing, cutting speed, etc for every hardness and thickness
of material. Minor departures from the ideal prescription don’t make
a lot of difference, of course. I’m not suggesting that one need be a
stickler for propriety. But, holding a hacksaw against a
fast-revolving shaft is a major departure from what the saw is
designed to do and is bound to cause trouble at least for some folks,
some time. It is not so much a matter of having sufficient physical
strength or positive mental attitude, as Ian Wright suggests, but
knowing how and where a saw actually can work or cannot work. Having
to exert great physical force to hold the tool against a moving
machine only guarantees that if something does suddenly go wrong your
injury is likely to be all the greater. Why ask for trouble?
Thanks for listening,
Marty Hykin in Victoria where people come from afar to drink over-
priced tea (if you can believe it) and where risk-taking is
generally frowned upon. Harumphh! 