Greetings from Nebraska.
Something that I learned early on when buffing (from Zac Higgins over at NVWoodwerks) was to make a tapered dowel type of tool that you can insert into one end of the blank while holding the other to buff the blanks. Some folks use a metal mandrel to hold them, but any metal will cause your buffing wheels to get very dirty (turn grey). That doesn't happen if your holder is made of wood - and holding the blanks without some kind of tool can be difficult as well - since you wind up buffing your fingers as well as the blanks.
I started out with the PSI lathe mounted buffing system, but went to a stand alone system after just a short while. I didn't like swapping my pen tooling out for the buffer on my lathe I guess. I wound up with a Rikon 8-inch slow speed buffer, but I replaced the 8-inch wheels with a 6-inch sewn cotton wheel (for use with the blue buffing compound) and a 6-inch loose flannel wheel for the other side. (Considering the linear velocity of the 8-inch wheels, I dropped the size to 6-inch to reduce the linear velocity to more closely match that I was using with the PSI lathe system. I'm very happy with the results and with the results I get on my pens.
Regards,
Dave
PS Picture of my setup is attached.