Official Luthiers Forum!

I've noticed most folks use a buffer with 12 inch wheels.
What advantage is there to these over a 6 or 8 inch buffer wheel?
Is anyone using the buffer wheel pads from StewMac that mount to a drill?

Thanks

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Christopher C. Cordle
North Muskegon, MI

http://www.yardsaleunderwear.com
http://www.facebook.com/christopher.cordle

All you have to do is try to buff the waist of one tight-waisted guitar and you'll understand exactly why even a 12" buff is fairly small....
Better to go even bigger....14, 16, or even 18 or 20" is a nice thing. Ok, some would argue overkill, but even the 12" buffs cause me issues.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Better, softer buffs that hold more compound, too.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I run 12" wheels but sometimes it would be nice to have a 20" or so and sometimes about a 4" would be nice.
It's tough to get down into a tight cutaway with a 12" wheel and seems like a 4" or so would let me do the cutaway with the shaft parallel to the guitar side.
Seems like the shaft is always in the way regardless. Perhaps someone should invent a "shaftless buffer".
I suppose that a 4" in a VSR drill would do the job.
Nelson

When I took the Martin factory tour, we were shown their amazing automated buffer. The thing was huge, I bet the wheel was 40" or so. A robot arm held a guitar body against the buffer, slowly turning it, flipping it over and so on like a graceful, gentle giant. So big is good, but my 12" Stewmac unit will also do the job, only slower. A smaller wheel would probably be slower still.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

One disadvantage of a larger wheel is that it makes it more difficult to buff aggressively without catching an edge. Example would be when buffing across the rib.   I suppose, however, that a robot holding the instrument would make a difference.