Finishing and Buffing Questions

[dankc908]

Now that I have received my new lathe and the old one is being 'warranty repaired' I am thinking of a lot of ways I can make the best use of 2 lathes. One of my first thoughts is setting up a buffing station. I have noticed 2 different approaches to the buffing station concept on PSI and have some questions. What is the difference between the Acrylic Pen Buffing System using 2 buffing wheels (http://www.pennstateind.com/store/BGBUFF.html) and the 3 Step Lathe Buffing System using 3 buffing wheels (http://www.pennstateind.com/store/LBUFFSYS.html)? I do turn both wood and acrylic pens.

I had, in the past, used William Young's BLO/CA finish on wood pens and was quite pleased. Last winter I began using "Turner's Magic" (due to extreme cold in my shop) which is OK but I am considering going back to the BLO/CA finish as it give a 'shinier' finish and more 'pop' on the grain which is what I want.

I realize that I am probably 'opening a can of worms' here, but, I have found the feedback from IAP members extremely helpful in most of my penturning.

Many Thanks!

Dan

 

[tim self]

I will probably get lynched over this but...... I buff everything I do with ONE wheel. The wax wheel with the beall system on bare wood, acrylic, plastic or CA. No wax on the wheel just a clean wheel. I have never had an issue of it messing up a finish or scratching anything. It also makes bare wood pop better before applying the CA. Just my way, YMMV.

And you could always use the other wheels to buff other things you decide to turn.

 

[ldb2000]

The two wheel system uses white diamond (or the finer green or blue abrasives) and a clean wheel to buff off any of the left over abrasive from the pen . The three wheel system uses tripoli to remove the heavier scratch patterns left from the sanding process . Then the white diamond to further clean up the scratch pattern left by the tripoli . Then the third wheel is used to add wax to the pen . It does nothing to the finish except fill the scratch pattern with wax which seems to make the pen shine more but it is doing this for only as long as the wax lasts which isn't long then the wax gets worn out of the scratches and the finial scratch pattern appears again .
As long as you have a fine enough scratch pattern to begin with then the two wheel system will work well .

 

[bradh]

There are standard ways the buffing set-up were intended; i.e. Tripoli, white diamond, and wax.
I use the three wheels in a non-standard set-up, I avoid the tripoli and white diamond because they are a courser grit than the 12000 MM I finish sanding with.
On my buffer, I only use two of the wheels. One for buffing with Meguire's Mirror glaze; the second wheel for buffing the Ren wax.

 

[ldb2000]

Renwax is not a buffable wax . By using a buffer you are removing the renwax after you apply it . Renwax is a microcrystaline wax and should only be hand buffed . Due to the heat of friction even a quick buff will melt the renwax and remove it very quickly .
As for the white diamond , the 12000 MM is very close to white diamond in particle size and the big difference , and the reason it works well even after 12000 MM , is that you use it in a direction different then the spinning motion of the lathe . The MM will polish deeper scratches instead of removing them where buffing will be cutting across these scratches and removing them instead of just polishing the inside of the scratches .