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The only time I've ever buffed anything in my life was when I was in high school and I worked at a factory buffing poured marble sinktops and bathtubs. I recently got some estate pipes and green/grey tripolied them to clean them up a bit. My questions;

- Should I be dedicating seperate buffing pads to different colors of compound?
- My buffing pad now has orangey brown rivulets of residue on it; did I overload it with compound, or is that normal?

Thanks all!

1. Yes

2. You probably have too much compound on the wheel. It only takes a 2-3 second touch of the bar to the wheel to load it.

Rad

BeatusLiebowitz wrote:... and green/grey tripolied them to clean them up a bit. My questions;

- My buffing pad now has orangey brown rivulets of residue on it; did I overload it with compound, or is that normal?

If your compound is green/grey but you have orange coloured streaks deposited on your buffing wheel, it could be the sulphur from the surface of the stem, but more likely you're removing some of the wood stain from the stummel.

There are differing opinions on how to clean compound buildup off a buffing wheel. For my non-metal buffing wheels I prefer to use a very coarse grit, heavy backed "sandpaper" around 24 or 36 grit. Never rake an unstitched wheel.

Frank said: <Never rake an unstitched wheel.>

Why? I do it all the time and haven't seen any ill effects. bob

Frank wrote:it could be the sulphur from the surface of the stem, but more likely you're removing some of the wood stain from the stummel.

I was just buffing the stems alone, no stummel, so it must be the sulphur. Seems I overloaded my pad though. Thanks again fellas!