buying a buffer

danp76

danp76

Oldtimer
Hi guys, looking to buy a stationary buffer for doing stainless. I see several horsepower sizes and models available. What size is appropriate (horsepower/rpm wise) for doing automobile stainless? I would like to start doing my own stainless polishing as it costs a fortune to send it out. Suggestions?..thanks guys, Dan.
 
I use and recommend a Baldor buffer setup with 1.5 hp and around 3600rpm. The 1800 rpm's one work best for plastic type material but I can buff plastic with mine if I'm careful. I bought mine from TP tools with the cast stand. I don't care for there buffing supplies but a place called Tar Heel Supplies out of NC also sells the Baldor setup and know there stuff on selling the right wheels and bars of compound. I wouldn't buy a China setup as I can can run mine for 3hours straight and it never overheats.
Jet tools sells a similar setup for less money but its still an import. Whenever I buy an import tool like this I'm just never that happy as the real thing.
I probably have 500 into my setup but I think they have gone up. I never have regretted it.
 
Thanks for the information Brad. Do you think I need 1.5 hp to buff stainless on car pieces?
 
Works for me. When using a sisel wheel and the black compound to remove 300-400 grit scratches you lean into it pretty good. I personally wouldn't want any less but I'm sure it will work with a 1hp. Forget about 3/4 as I have a 3/4 baldor belt sanding setup and it can be stopped fairly easy with the wire brush. Sisel wheels (however it's spelled) is like bailing twine formed into a buffing wheel and takes some juice to run it.

You need three different buffing wheels.
Sisel- aggressive da scratch removal
Loose Flanel- Last step for final polish
Tight Flanel- Not positive on what they call this one. It's the one that gets the part looking shiny.
Each wheel gets a different compound.

Not much to it but it is hard work and you have to be very careful. People have been killed when the wheel grabs a hold of a sharp part and flails it around. Customer almost lost his thumb a couple years ago doing a license plate surround.
 
i restore stainless quite a bit . brad is right on the motor. 1hp will work but a 1.5 cuts time . one thing i have learned over the years of doing it is you damn near cant polish a scratch out of stainless. i learned to treat it like paint. i wet sand it down to 2000 then polish. goes much quicker and you use less wheel and compound. you also don't have to lay into it as hard.
go to the hardware and get several sticks of 3/4 wooden dowel . tape your piece to it so you have it secure and you can get a better grip. otherwise you risk flying spears that will hit the only painted piece in the shop and take a finger with it. and damn sure wear some quality gloves .

just food for thought in case anyone is hungry............
 
Which ever one you decide on , get the one with the longest shafts. There are many on the market that have quite short shafts and really limit your ability to do complex pieces.
 
shine;14014 said:
i learned to treat it like paint. i wet sand it down to 2000 then polish. goes much quicker and you use less wheel and compound. you also don't have to lay into it as hard.
go to the hardware and get several sticks of 3/4 wooden dowel . tape your piece to it so you have it secure and you can get a better grip. otherwise you risk flying spears that will hit the only painted piece in the shop and take a finger with it. and damn sure wear some quality gloves .

just food for thought in case anyone is hungry............
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. I buff a lot of stainless and not big parts but smaller parts where I have to retain dimensional tolerances. I have a 1hp Baldor and it is nice but if I had to do it over again I would make my own from a motor, belt and long, long shafts with a variable speed drive. This way you can run really big wheels and slow it down which is easier to handle. With the price of new baldors you could make a much better one.

There is no replacement for working your scratch pattern with papers, woven abrasives, rubberized abrasives, belt grinders etc. I never buff until I am at least to 800+ grit. Buffing under this scratch level is slow, shows waviness and takes off too much material IMHO. I spend as little time with the buffer as possible. It's a dirty, nasty, dangerous thing.
 
I located a 3/4hp baldor buffer on stand with little use...too little power? I spoke with the owner and he said he used it very little and used it to buff the trim on his t-bird and it worked great. I wonder if it would do what I need? I know some of you guys suggested 1 1/2 hp, would that be over kill for a part-time user like me? I won't be buffing stainless trim all the time, occasional use.
 
It's plenty. Especially if you prep the parts well. The only reason you need big HP is to try and work out deep scratches with the buffing wheels and like I said, IMHO there are easier ways to do it.
 
My tools are all for limited hobby use, including my buffer. I've never owned a Baldor but if I were going to spend the $500+, I'd buy a two-speed model. Baldor offers them in a variety of sizes and I found one site that shows some of them:
http://www.buschshineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_30_42

If you are only going to buff stainless, you should plan on a 3600 rpm machine and if you want to buff aluminum, brass or copper, you should be using an 1800 rpm machine. As has been pointed out, a buffer is a nasty and dangerous machine. No guards or rests anywhere in sight and when something catches on a 10" wheel turning at 3600 rpm, there will be carnage. I'm down to five fingers so I use a 1/2 hp with a 6-inch wheel that turns at 3600 rpm. I have a second setup on a 3/4 hp double shaft motor with an 8-inch wheel turning at 3450 (two broken windows in the shop from that puppy). Here are the launch speeds for the various size buffing wheels:

6" wheel = 18.85" circumference @ 3600 rpm = ~60 mph
8" wheel = 25" circumference @ 3600 rpm = ~86 mph
10" wheel = 31" circumference @ 3600 rpm = ~107 mph

With a 1 hp two-speed buffer motor, the 10" wheel launch speed is below 60 mph when the motor is running at 1800 rpm.
 
I do a lot of my own copper/nickel plating so I need the power more than stainless I suppose. Shine is definetly right on sanding the stainless with finer grits to speed up the process. When I prep the bare parts for copper then I use a lot of black grease and sisel wheels to get it ready for plating quicker. For me theres nothing worse than leaning into a part and have the thing stop. Grandfather has a 5hp monster from decades ago. I hate that thing, you want to talk about dangerous power running 3" wide wheels. Sometimes bigger isn't always better!

I've always had great results with my 3600 rpm buffer on alum, copper, and brass. I'd purchase my setup all over again and I don't wish for anything else except for the dual speed which wasn't an option or I would have done it. This is very uncommon for me as I can always find fault tools.
 
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