Buffing station upgrade.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:54 am
This was my original setup, some of you may have seen it before in pictures and videos. It's a fairly simple setup made using a MT2 arbour that fits into the headstock and some threaded rod. The buffs are 8". The jig has performed well for a couple of years new but one thing always bugged me, changing the arbours from buffing compounds to wax. It was tricky, wasted time and was really irritating if you noticed a scratch on the stem or something after waxing and you had to change it all around again. I also would have liked a little more clearance.
So I decided it was time to upgrade things a little. Fitting more than 2 buffs onto the rod caused too much flex, so to get 3 buffs onto one arbour I needed some more support. Luckily my tool supplier recently brought out a reasonably priced fixed steady for my lathe. So with a new piece of threaded rod, a bit of machining to make a bush for the fixed steady to run on and some new 12" buffs I was away. The buffs are still running in but I think in a few weeks everything will have settled down, the dust should have stopped and I will be happy with the new system. I have more space between the buffs, a great depth around them and all 3 of my main buffs are on 1 arbour so no need to change except for special jobs.
So I decided it was time to upgrade things a little. Fitting more than 2 buffs onto the rod caused too much flex, so to get 3 buffs onto one arbour I needed some more support. Luckily my tool supplier recently brought out a reasonably priced fixed steady for my lathe. So with a new piece of threaded rod, a bit of machining to make a bush for the fixed steady to run on and some new 12" buffs I was away. The buffs are still running in but I think in a few weeks everything will have settled down, the dust should have stopped and I will be happy with the new system. I have more space between the buffs, a great depth around them and all 3 of my main buffs are on 1 arbour so no need to change except for special jobs.