How can you tell if there is enough, or to much, buffing compound on the wheel? Esp. the white diamond. Secondly, how many of you use the white diamond as your absolute last finishing step? I've been practicing buffing acrylic but I always seem to still have very fine scratches after the white diamond. I guess I could sand or MM more before buffing, but since the scratches seem to be finer than the white diamond I'm not sure that would help. I'm hoping I just need to improve my buffing technique then I can stop after buffing?
Buffing
- Thread starter ghansen4
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terry q
Member
My practice is a little goes a long way.
I don't do a lot of acrylics but we last step with white diamond on about everything.
It may not be your case, but it is important to wipe your blanks between grits of MM and sandpaper. And also it helps to wash the MM periodically. It is easy to have abrasive contamination.
This includes a very good wipe down before buffing. Reserve your buffing wheels only for buffing and not for final lathe tool honing.
For us the skew is our friend. Skew well sand little.
It may not be your case, but it is important to wipe your blanks between grits of MM and sandpaper. And also it helps to wash the MM periodically. It is easy to have abrasive contamination.
This includes a very good wipe down before buffing. Reserve your buffing wheels only for buffing and not for final lathe tool honing.
For us the skew is our friend. Skew well sand little.
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Charlie_W
Member
I use plastic polish after wet sanding and then on to buffing. I like the buffing wheel and blue rouge from Barry Gross. After that, I buff with a clean flannel wheel.
If you see a build up of tripoli you used too much, the excess will be buffed away after 2-3 buffs. I start with Tripoli, second buff with Plastic-Glo ultrafine P-22 from Caswell, third buff with Plastic P-112 from Caswell.
I reapply compounds after every 6-10 items buffed
I reapply compounds after every 6-10 items buffed
thewishman
Member
My father-in-law was a jeweler for 50 years. He fixed my buffing mistakes - tap the compound to the wheel about the same amount of time it takes to say buff.
Here's a great resource:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/buffing-kicked-up-notch-55476/
Here's a great resource:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/buffing-kicked-up-notch-55476/
dogcatcher
Member
The wishman and TonyL posted the 2 "bibles" of buffing for penmakers.
sbwertz
Member
Cleaning buffing wheels
I made the mistake of taking a mandrel with pen blanks and bushings over and using the mandrel to hold the blanks for buffing. The result was that the steel bushings turned my wheel black.
Only way I could think of to clean it was to hold some 80 grit sandpaper against the wheel until it came white again.
I made the mistake of taking a mandrel with pen blanks and bushings over and using the mandrel to hold the blanks for buffing. The result was that the steel bushings turned my wheel black.
Only way I could think of to clean it was to hold some 80 grit sandpaper against the wheel until it came white again.