Buffing My Pens

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malonjw

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Mar 10, 2012
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Kathleen, GA
I am Jerry Malone. I need some guidance concerning buffing my pens. I have looked at Pennstate's buffing equipment. I am also considering purchasing a benchtop buffer from Harbor Freight. My issue there is I don't know what kind of buffing wheels to get all the scratches out of my pens. I don't know what kind of rouge do I need. The buffer on Harbor uses a 1/2 arbor. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day!!
 
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Hi Jerry

Welcome - I'm just starting to use a buffer on my pens as well. Have you done some searching on the site? There are a number of threads that address your questions about the types of buffing wheels and compounds. There's a document or two in the library here as well. I think you'll find that like anything else, there are a number of ways to approach it and it comes down to what works for you. Especially when it comes to compounds and part of it might be based on how you finish the pen up to that point. Perhaps line that out here?

My buffing wheels are from Niles bottlestoppers. But I think there are some flannel based ones folks here might recommend.

As for the mandrel sizes - 1/2" is pretty common. I actually just made my own recently out of a harbor freight drill press motor with a 1/2" shaft.
 
Here's the grandaddy of the buffing threads:

Buffing-- kicked up a notch!

If you like your buffing finishes on your CA finished or acrylic pens and are content with the shine they give you then read no further. However if you want to kick the gloss up a notch you might consider trying this..... 1. Visit Caswell plating 2. Order a few Canton flannel buffs. These...
www.penturners.org
 
I got the Beall wheels a number of years ago and I have never even thought about looking further. They're (I think) a US-made set of three 8" fabric wheels. Each wheel gets softer as you progress. There is a first wheel that I use with a (supplied) Tripoli compound, a second wheel that I use with the (again, supplied) white diamond compound and a third wheel (which I don't use) that comes with a carnuba wax block. My set came with a #2MT adapter that fits my lathe headstock. I then screw a wheel into the adapter, hit it with a little compound and buff. Speed is your choice but I usually stay 800-1000rpm. Some go faster.
Note - Prior to buffing on the Beall wheels I wet sand to 3000 and then polish with Novus 3 & 2.
The whole process is probably overkill but my pens have a mirror shine that I don't see duplicated very often.
The only drawback (other than time) is that much sanding and polishing requires a bit more CA on wood pens and OCCASIONALLY I'll sand through to the wood. Just takes a little extra CA and caution to prevent that.
Good luck!
 
I've used the two wheel Barry Gross model available from Penn State for 5 years and it works great. It contains everything you need so no need to shop around for parts. It fits on the lathe. I use it only for CA finishes and all the variations of acrylic. It comes with the compound stick which has lasted for about 800 pens.
 
Ted iin Michigan said:
I got the Beall wheels a number of years ago and I have never even thought about looking further. They're (I think) a US-made set of three 8" fabric wheels. Each wheel gets softer as you progress. There is a first wheel that I use with a (supplied) Tripoli compound, a second wheel that I use with the (again, supplied) white diamond compound and a third wheel (which I don't use) that comes with a carnuba wax block. My set came with a #2MT adapter that fits my lathe headstock. I then screw a wheel into the adapter, hit it with a little compound and buff. Speed is your choice but I usually stay 800-1000rpm. Some go faster.
Note - Prior to buffing on the Beall wheels I wet sand to 3000 and then polish with Novus 3 & 2.
The whole process is probably overkill but my pens have a mirror shine that I don't see duplicated very often.
The only drawback (other than time) is that much sanding and polishing requires a bit more CA on wood pens and OCCASIONALLY I'll sand through to the wood. Just takes a little extra CA and caution to prevent that.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
I took love the beal system. Much better than the tiny PSI buffer.
 
I also have the Beall buff system. Mine is mounted on a Rikon econo lathe that I bought to permanently provide a home for the system. I have had a long time and got the lathe cheap. I sand my barrels to 600 then off to buff. I have replaced the beall buffs over time with Canton buffs. They are very reasonable and work well. I immediately work the buffs over with a "rake" I got from amazon. After buffing I go back to the regular lathe and use McGuire Plastic Polish, although, I do wonder sometimes the wisdom of that. I only turn acrylic....except for segmenting. Some of the cheaper acrylic blanks that have that random "string" in them, it does seem to raise that string, from the rest of the blank.
But all in all I would never leave buffing for another method.
 
InkyMike said:
Hi Jerry

Welcome - I'm just starting to use a buffer on my pens as well. Have you done some searching on the site? There are a number of threads that address your questions about the types of buffing wheels and compounds. There's a document or two in the library here as well. I think you'll find that like anything else, there are a number of ways to approach it and it comes down to what works for you. Especially when it comes to compounds and part of it might be based on how you finish the pen up to that point. Perhaps line that out here?

My buffing wheels are from Niles bottlestoppers. But I think there are some flannel based ones folks here might recommend.

As for the mandrel sizes - 1/2" is pretty common. I actually just made my own recently out of a harbor freight drill press motor with a 1/2" shaft.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your comments InkyMike. I need tips like from guys like you, to know how to get started. Truthfully I have never buffed any of my pens before, so I am very green at this whole process. Thanks for your help!
 
malonjw said:
Thanks for your comments InkyMike. I need tips like from guys like you, to know how to get started. Truthfully I have never buffed any of my pens before, so I am very green at this whole process. Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Happy to help - there are a ton of folks here with heaps more experience than me. I tried out my DIY buffer today and I'm pretty happy with the results - but under high magnification, I can still see some radial scratches. The client won't see them but I know they are there. So I'm thinking about how to adjust my process.
 
Be careful, once you use the Beale buffing system your micro mesh pads will get very lonely 7ntil you give them away or pitch them out.😢
 
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