pipemakersforum.com

I acquired a grinding wheel. Six inch, 1/4 HP, 3,450 RPM. Will this work for buffing and tripoli work?

Thanks
Eric

The 1/4 hp is enough if it's a quality, conservatively rated motor, but the speed is higher than optimal. It CAN be used successfully, but it's more difficult to learn and less forgiving of mistakes.

The majority of pipe makers use "half speed" motors of around 1600 rpm.

While not ideal, it will work with 4" buffing wheels. If the wheels are any larger the surface speed is too high.

or if you want to get involved, build an arbor to mount your wheels to and then build a speed brake (break?) to slow down the speed

as long as the wheels are nice and soft it should be pretty decent. hard sewn wheels will burn the pipe

That size wheel and speed combination can work, they're just not very forgiving. One slip and your pipe is a missile.

andrew

I've used one when I started, many moons ago, both for sanding and polishing. You will get a couple of pipes on the floor, wall, ceiling etc along the way to learning how to use it. I still use it for rough shaping with a 16 grit disc.

Charl wrote:I've used one when I started, many moons ago, both for sanding and polishing. You will get a couple of pipes on the floor, wall, ceiling etc along the way to learning how to use it. I still use it for rough shaping with a 16 grit disc.

This is more commonly called a wood chipper...

andrew

Charl wrote:I've used one when I started, many moons ago, both for sanding and polishing. You will get a couple of pipes on the floor, wall, ceiling etc along the way to learning how to use it. I still use it for rough shaping with a 16 grit disc.

Where on earth do you get a 16grit disc!

Searched far and wide! It's a 230mm angle grinder disc. You don't get it often, but then it lasts me about 1 year with the amount of pipes that I make.

I think my 40grit discs at 3000rpm remove material plenty fast enough for me, if I need it any quicker than that then I go use a saw lol.