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OK, ready to buy a buffer. In fact I went back to Casewell Plating to look at their Baldor Buffers. Nothing has changed except my perception. Their lowest speed is 1750 rpm. Too fast. You would think these things could come with a speed knob! My $80 bench grinder does! But I do like the Baldor design. I do not want to fool with building one. And Stew Mac is no where ready to release their "new & improved" design what ever that is.

Links to sources anyone?

Mike

Well, I screwed up at Casewell. I missed the old link to the old buffer kits. They still have the one at 1100 rpm. Is that acceptable?

Mike

I use a stewmac belt drive and a 1725rpm 1/3hp motor with a 2" drive sheave. The arbor has 3 sheaves sizes on the shaft and it is driving 4 (2 each side) 12" buffing wheels. I calculated the rpm along time ago but I cant remember for sure I think I seem to recall I am running about 600 rpm on the low side and close to 1200 on the high side. I noticed they are not offering it any more but are developing a motor and arbor package but not yet available.

by the way I am using double stitched canton cotton wheels

I am running the 1100 RPM Caswell buffer, and the new stew-mac one just can't come fast enough for me. By that I mean to say the 1100 just doesn't have the juice in my experience. It does the trick but just barely. It takes me about 45 minutes on a 1750 RPM machine to do what it takes several hours of frustration to do on the 1100 machine. And that was with KTM-9 which is way softer that Cat Poly. So I would definitely go with the faster machine.

I could be wrong but from what I understand the new stewmac will be a pre mounted arbor and motor set up and it will be 1750 rpm motor 1/3hp with a 2" dive sheave, belt and still have the same three sheaves combo as the old arbor had. If that is the case It will not spin any faster than mine does near 1200rpm. While the motor does turns at 1750 there is a drive reduction because you go from 2" dirve sheave to 3-6" input sheaves on the shaft. Only a direct drive 1750 rpm motor where the buff shaft is the motor's shaft would spin the buffers at 1750 prm.

...sigh.

Come on guys!! You can make these units any speed you like. All you have to do is change the pulley sizes. For example if the motor has a 4 inch pulley and the shaft is fitted with a 2 inch pulley then the shaft will turn 1/2 the speed of the motor. A 2:1 reduction. You can get a lot of different combination's of pulley sizes. I am not going to pull out my calculator but just think about it a bit and it will be quite simple. For instance, a 3 iunch on the motor and 2 inch on the arbour shaft is, you guessed it, a 3:2 reduction.

My arbour is made, just need to mount the pulleys. I don't a guitar ready for buffing so it has been sitting for a while. I had the shaft made a machine shop for about $100, it is 1.25" thick and 42 inches long I think. Reverse thread on one end and normal thread on the other. I bought some decent pillow blocks and some good pulleys. I have a 3/4 hp motor for it and I can adjust the speed using different pulleys. I think I have set for around 1200 rpm, from advice from some guitar maker friends of mine who stated that was the speed to use to decrease heat build up. I should check to make sure that I am down around that. I have lots of hp to run any speed I need. And I also have a 1hp motor I can use if 3/4 isn't enough.

Anyway, good luck with it. And Mike, building a buffer is about the easiest jig you can make casue the machinist does most of the work, you just need to bolt it to a piece of wood!

Shane

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Canada

I buff about 8 McPherson Guitar bodies a week. We have two variable speed grizzly buffers. One has double buffs per side, and the other has 4 per side. I run them at 1100 RPM and the finish is really nice. We wet sand progressively up to 2000 grit. Takes about 45 minutes per body using menzerna compounds.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I have a grizzly arbor like the stew mac unit. this is about 1/2 the price , I use a 1/4 hp motor. The stepped pulley on the buffing arbor gives you speed options. I have a 16 wheel on one side and a 12 on the other. This works well for my application . The larger grizzly buffer is also ok , has a larger shaft.
http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com/produc ... mbly/H3559
this is the one I have. With a 1/4 hp motor you won't get a body pulled out of your hands. Nothing is so disturbing as playing bouncie with ew guitar body. I tossed on and about split it in 2. That was my 2nd guitar and my first experience with a power buffer.
john hall
blues creek guitars

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I used a drill press as a buffer with Stewmac foam pads. It works nicely but I don't like the foam pad because it gets chewed up especially with solid body electric guitar bodies. The pickup routing just cuts up the foam pad and throws junk everywhere. Also the foam pad doesn't really polish much at all since it's too soft, but on the plus side you don't burn stuff up by accident. I am thinking of getting a larger buff (around 10"-12" or so) and use a drill adapter or something. By the way is there any compound other than Merzena that I can use? I'd love to use Merzena but they are really really expensive. I can find rouges out there but not sure what color to use for buffing finishes.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Yeah, I finally noticed that grizzly offers buffers. OK, will take all this advice and reconsider.

Mike (still liking the casewell option)

PS: Grizzly offers so many good deals... I can't believe how expensive their buffers are...

One more thing I would tell someone searching for a buffer. keep in mind working around it. If the shaft is shorter than 36" you will find it hard to maneuver a full guitar around without touching out on the other wheel or arbor. The more perpendicular your work surface is to the buff wheel the better. The more clearance area around each wheel the better. there are al lot of direct drive units out there for a reasonable price, but most are designed to polish flat bar and other small steel or wood objects and have shafts that are too short to comfortably work a guitar.