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Hi Guys. I'm working on my first pipe. This weekend, I look forward to finishing it. I have a few questions about buffing, though.

I bought 3 buffing wheels from PIMO; muslin buff, sewn muslin buff (spiral), and a flanel buff.

I've read since then not to use sewn buffs because the thread may mar the surface. Should I snip out the sewn threads on this buff? Or should I keep it as is? If I keep it as is, would this be the first buff I use?

I also bought their 3 pack of wax; Yellow, White and Carnauba. I also bought a bar of Tripoli. I've really only read about using white, tripoli and canauba. I was wondering which these I should be using. Since I only have 3 buffs, I was thinking of using tripoli, carnauba on the muslin buffs and then final buffing with no compound on the flanel buffs. Is this correct, or should I do something different?

Thanks for the help.

I'm not sure what the "3 pack" contains (will go look at the pimo site).

If you've got a sewn wheel, an unstitched one, and a big floppy buffing wheel, for now I'd suggest that you use the sewn one with brown tripoli, the unsewn for white compound (white diamond?), and the big floppy one for wax.

That said, using those wheels myself, I very quickly ordered another unstitched wheel with which to apply the wax. So I use brown trip on the stitched for a fairly hard polish, and then the "high luster compound" on an unstitched as a finishing polish, then I apply wax with the unstitched, and then buff (dry) on the flannel or muslin or whatever that big floppy one is.


EDIT: I have no idea white yellow, white and carnauba would indicate for waxes. Just use the carnauba, which is the rock hard little yellow puck.

My preference is to use the following:
8" sewn buff at ~1800 RPM for brown tripoli
8" sewn buff at ~1800 RPM for white diamond
8" unsewn buff at ~1250 for carnuba (I simply snipped the threads out of a sewn buff with my pocket knife)
6" unsewn, floppy, flannel buff at ~850 RPM for final buffing

Possibly way too late now, but hell: What is the difference between muslin and flannel?
And do you use a seperate dedicated tripoli buff for removing stain from a pipe? That is, one for normal trip use and one for removing stain?

The way I understand it, flannel is best for the final dry buff after waxing and the muslin is better for compounds and wax.

I only have one trip buff that I use for all my buffing, although I wouldn't use it to remove stain. Not sure how that fits into your process. If you're talking about changing colors, it's best to go back to like a 400 grit paper and re-stain. Assuming you have the color you want on there, by the time you stain at 600, that's pretty much what you end up with, and when you go to the buffing wheel you're just buffing off a small amt. of excess.

Hope that answered your question.

Just on a simple physical descriptive basis, muslin is a realtively coarse flat plainwoven cotton cloth with no nap to it, think of a lightweight canvas. Flannel is also cotton but is generally a much finer weave and has been combed so it has a slightly fuzzy nap to it. It's a lot softer than muslin, thus its use for final polish.

And yes, you can find wool flannel and linen muslins, but not as buffing wheel material.

Sewn wheels are more aggressive than loose wheels, spiral sewn are stiffer than concentric sewn.

Felt wheels are harder still, and if you want to use your buffer as a saw get some sisal wheels.

Felt and sisal wheels are generally used only for buffing metals, especially steel.

Alan L wrote:Felt and sisal wheels are generally used only for buffing metals, especially steel.

Hell, I won't even touch hardened carbon steel with those. Concentric sewn and black emery compound if I *must* buff steel. Bust mostly I just satin sand it and call it finished.

I have been using a felt wheel (3") for brown tripoli... That might explain why all the pipes I work on turns kinda brown... :-\ (cleaning estates, etc, not making new ones).

But it works so well on oxidized stems that I think I'll continue to use it.

Thanks, guys!

I just tried my hand at putting a finish on this practice pipe.

Red trip - 6" sewn wheel - 1630 RPM
White diamond -same as trip
Carnuba - 6" unsewn - 760 RPM

Few questions; the wax still seemed to burn with medium pressure. Could this be because I overloaded the wheel?
The trip transfered to both of the other wheels, overloading again?
I barely applied the trip to the 1st wheel, should I apply it at lower RPM's? So confused

It's easy to overload those small stitched wheels for sure.... My rule for wax is if you can see it on the wheel, you got too much on there.

I'd reverse the order of the speeds you are using - try a slower approach with the tripoli and white diamond, and the faster (1500 to 1700) for the carnauba.

Okay, kool. Thanks!
You can definitely see the trip on the first wheel, and slightly on the next two. Does this mean I've trashed them? Damn I hope not, only used em once

All of my buffers run at 1150 rpm.

Rad

I'll keep that in mind, I have a few estates that wouldn't mind getting stripped down and dressed up.
I think my biggest sin was over charging the wheel, my "designated red tripoli wheel looks like it's been rolled around on Zsa Zsa Gabor's lips!

You can cleam up the over-charged wheel with a bit of really rough sandpaper. 24 or 36 grit resin backed discs will do a good job. There's also a tool you can buy called a buffing wheel rake that is designed to clean up and freshen buffing wheels. The wheels should last a good long time, just be sure not to gum them up and they'll treat you right. In the case of buffing and polishing, less is definitely more.

Awesome, thanks! I'll pick some up today

I wouldn't be worried about having "too much" tripoli - it's the compound that does the work, after all. But wax is another thing altogether. Less is better for wax.

As for the Pimo waxes:

Yellow is bees wax. I believe it's intended for rubbing on tenons so that it will tighten a loose joint when it soaks into the mortise, causing it to swell. Or maybe it's for lubricating a tight joint. I think I've heard both answers on some pipe forum.

The carnauba is for finishing the pipe. See other threads on this forum for people who know better than I how to apply it.

After buying the same kit, I call pimo, because I thought white was going to be a white diamond compound. Apparently it's another wax for finishing pipes that isn't as hard as carnauba. I don't plan to use it.

This marks the first time I have had something truly intelligent to add to this forum. I am pleased.

I bought a bench grinder today because it was on sale for $19.99 unfortunately it is 3450RPM. Is this way too high to do any kind of buffing? Or am I able to do stems with this and a buff of the pipe to take care of nicks and then finish by hand or my makeshift cordless drill buff? I can always return it but I thought there might be a way to make it work.

You can get a rheostatic sorta thingy that will allow you to control the speed of that grinder by altering the voltage it sees. Google "speed control, power tools" or something like that. 3,400 is about 2 times faster than ideal.