Delrin Bushings .... question?

[Willee]

What advantage is there to using bushings made of Delrin instead of steel?

Delrin is soft and would easily sand away.

I would think that instead of softer you would want harder to resist wear down from sanding.
Carbide bushings would last forever but the are very expensive.

 

[rjwolfe3]

What advantage is there to using bushings made of Delrin instead of steel?

Delrin is soft and would easily sand away.

I would think that instead of softer you would want harder to resist wear down from sanding.
Carbide bushings would last forever but the are very expensive.

No bushing dust from Delrin also finishes don't stick very well to Delrin so blank is easier to get off. I personally sand between centers with no bushings. I then apply my finish that way. Then I wet sand and polish with the eliminator from John on my other lathe.

 

[ThomJ]

I use steel bushings for turning and initial sanding, delrin for finishing

 

[gr8danish]

Besides finishing bushings & spacers (I finish 4-5 blanks at a time on a mandrel with slices of delrin separating the parts); I have made myself a small fixture for glueing / clamping segmented blanks together.

It's basically a cylinder of delrin with a 7mm shaft in the middle. Then there's another cylinder with a 7mm hole through the center.

I cut off my segments on the lathe (already center drilled), and glue them together on the fixture. This way I can spin the parts until they line up correctly, before clamping the two halves of the fixture together.