pipemakersforum.com

Been using my buffing setup for some years now.
It works well, but I am always curious if there is something out there that would be an upgrade.

If you could buy your ultimate setup and do it again, what would it be?

Mine is basically a small 2 wheel 1750rpm I use for compound. 1 wide leather wheels and one softer narrower wheel.
I also have a carnuba only buffer that's an old washing machine motor. That one I'll keep. It works wonders and I don't see an improvement there.

Looking for cleaning purposes at the moment, but I'm curious what you pros have on the birthday list.

Thanks!

I have been eyeing up the Baldor Dental Lathe's.

Something with a splash cabinet would be nice. I could then add some LEDs etc.

Smoothly sweepable zero to max rpm variable speed capability. EXTREMELY useful whether sanding (French wheel) or buffing. Done with something called a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD).

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=10754&p=106356&hilit=vfd#p106356

I use the Beall mandrels on my lathe with two buffs per mandrel. I added a variable speed motor to this lathe. I'm not hugely attached to the system but it works well enough I suppose. I'm not likely to upgrade it any time soon.

I am incredibly pleased with my lathe based setup, having used various professional systems in different shops I would choose my own setup over all of them any day. 12" buffs, easily variable speed and everything right in front of me no need to change out buffs at all, just work my way along from left to right.

I have a Grizzly 1HP buffer that runs 1750rpm. It's a great machine. I use it for white diamond on one side and wax on the other. I have Tim West buffing wheels for it, which are definitely a step up from Beall. For Tripoli, I have a 1/2HP motor from Harbor Freight with a Beall arbor and a Tim west buff. The Grizzly is great because of the extra-long arbor, which gives you more room to work on longer pipes. The Tim West wheels are a larger diameter than the Beall system, which also gives you more room to work as well as a higher surface speed. I don't think I get a better finish than anyone else because of my system. But I can polish acrylics and ebonite starting with a lower grit of sanding than when I had just my Harbor Freight motor and the Beall system.

I have been pleased with my Foredom bench 'lathe' . Variable speed with buffs ranging from 2" to 6". It is a pleasure to work on stems, a little small for stummels. The mandrels are a little weird but the wheel changes are quick. http://www.foredom.net/mbl.aspx
It is basically a smaller (less expensive, less capable)'version of George's Baldor system.
I also use a Beall system on an old 1725 rpm salvaged sump pump motor. I will have to check into Tim West's wheels.
DocAitch

I actually have my dream buffer setup being put together right now, it should be ready next month. I can't wait to brag about it I think a lot depends on how much space do you have in your shop- if you have a lot, you can set up several motors with different speeds and different arbors and make it work. If you have limited space you want to go in the direction of variable speed in order to do various tasks on one drive. Hopefully I will be able to let you know how it works soon

I'm no engineer, nor do I play one on TV, but I built a 4 wheel buffing set up from scratch. All you really need is a motor and VFD, belt, a couple pulleys, some bearings, and an axle to mount the wheels on. Using scrap lumber or mounting it directly to the bench work good too. My system is stand alone and has a sheet metal hood and the fame is on locking casters so I can wheel it around the shop if needed. I put a long LED light under the hood and now the only mod I really need is good dust collection.

If I knew what I was doing I could have done it better, but so far I'm pleased. I've buffed about 400 pipes on it so far (mostly estate pipes), and I really have no complaints.

Mine is a simple system, I use individual buffing wheels with my lathe collet chuck. That gives me the dust collector and variable speed capability. I made extra long shafts for the wheels so I can work on both sides of the wheels. I also went to Caswell Platng and used their suggestions on what are the best wheels and best compounds to use.

There was a penturner a few years ago that wrote an article about stepping up your buffing, he used the Caswell site as huis basis of choosing the wheels and the compounds for finishes and for acrylics. This is the link. http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/buf ... tch-55476/
The thing to remember is you have to adjust his suggestions to both your needs and what you are working on.

My buffing set up is just chucking up different wheels on the lathe. I got some wheels and polishing compounds. It is definately not anyone's dream set up, but it works. My shop lacks space. In the future I hope to one day have more space for equipment. Space for equipment that I don't really need plus what I do need would be ideal.

Once I have space I will be able to consider perfect dream set ups.

I use a variable speed motor and get my wheels from J.H. Lowe, Tim West... # wheels is all you need...

I have a couple benchtop buffers and they work great with 8" wheels. I also have the beal system on a 1hp motor. If i had my druthers id do a few standalone 3phase motors all with vfds and the beal adapters.

I think whatever works for you is just fine. I don't see the need for 1 or 2hp motors for buffing in fact I wouldn't use them for pipes that's for sure. Have a dual shaft 3/4 hp 3600 rpm buffer I moved out to the shed because they're designed for buffing brass, aluminum etc. not pipes.
I have a small old 1/3 hp 1750 rpm dual shaft motor with keyless Jacobs chucks is use as a buffer on a stand and just change out wheels for different rouges and wax and does a fine job. Now for sanding/shaping I could see where speed and hp might be wanted but, I use a single shaft 1/3 hp for shaping also and it works just fine for me. I reckon it just depends on what you're use to.
As far as upgrades, a new larger lathe would be nice.

You should have enough power to mount a 200-230mm wheel and not be able to slow it down even when pushing hard. 350 watt will be enough, as long as we are talking about real, european watt ratings, not chinese ones. Chinese stuff will have power ratings on it that have nothing to do with reality.
That said, more power is always better.

Since I already had jewelry polishing tools in my shop, I've simply adopted the same setup to polish pipes as well. Jewelers need to switch buffing wheels constantly for various tasks, so they use tapered spindles on the ends of their buffer shafts. The tapered spindles are threaded, so that they feed the buffing wheel up the tapered shaft as they spin, gripping the buffing wheel very firmly, yet allowing you to instantly change wheels. You need simply shut off the motor, hold the shaft steady with one hand and the buffing wheel with the other, and the buffing wheel un-threads off the tapered spindle instantly, just like spinning a nut off a bolt. The spindles come in left and right-hand threads, since they need opposite threads on each end of a dual-shaft polisher to function properly.

The photos below show what the setup looks like, with two wheels mounted, a bare spindle, and then several optional polishing devices used for jewelry, including a bristle brush, felt shaft for polishing the insides of rings, felt and abrasive wheels and polishing buffs in various widths and materials and sizes. Being able to switch buffs so quickly is nice. I appreciate it when making pipes as much as I do when making jewelry.

If you're short of workspace, and you have a lathe, you can simply chuck a tapered spindle into your lathe and you have what LatakiaLover described: a variable speed polisher from 0 to 2000 RPMs or so, AND you can quickly switch buffs as you work. The spindles are cheap, for as handy as they are. Here's a link to the source where I buy these tapered spindles and my polishing buffs and compounds: https://ijsinc.com/c-1060-tapered-spindles.aspx

The Foredom "bench lathe" has the same sort of spindles and is also variable speed. I also like the convenience of rapid wheel changes.
It is a smaller machine, and the largest buff that I have is 6", but that has been, thus far, adequate for buffing stems. I use a Beall system for whole pipes.
DocAitch.

I just have 2 1500W (2HP), 1750rpm 3-phase (380V) motors I picked up at a local yardsale for €25 combined. One of them I use for sanding, the other has a jacobs chuck in which I mount my beall wheels. Works perfectly, changing wheels is a matter of seconds.