Harbor Freight Buffing Wheel

[StPatrickPiper]

Rustie is right about speed. I use 4 inch wheels on my 3000 rpm bench grinder. Works great. Only thing about small wheels for me is that the shaft gets in the way due to the smaller wheel diameter.

 

[ssjones]

Only thing about small wheels for me is that the shaft gets in the way due to the smaller wheel diameter.

Bingo - larger pads give you come clearance against shaft and retaining nut. Hit the spindle with a stem is a never-racking sound. You have to be super careful with a longer bend pipe and small pads. Long arbors are also a plus, I used the extended arbors from Jestco on my buffers.

 

[woodsroad]

This is with old pipes then? When I make a new pipe I always polish it, then wax. I guess I would polish the pipe, then wax, then polish the wax?

Define "polish"?
With an unfinished pipe, I sand to a very fine grit with MicroMesh, then apply Carnuba or a Carnuba blend and buff. So that's two different wheels: A stiff stitched wheel to apply, an a felt wheel to buff/polish.

 

[ssjones]

Define "polish"?
With an unfinished pipe, I sand to a very fine grit with MicroMesh, then apply Carnuba or a Carnuba blend and buff. So that's two different wheels: A stiff stitched wheel to apply, an a felt wheel to buff/polish.

Polish typically refers to removing surface imperfections, which result in a greater shine. Ascending grades of Micromesh remove incrementally smaller scratches, at the 12,000 grade, they leave only scratches/imperfections not visible to the naked eye.