Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello, I am a newbie and I have a newbie question. I am trying to use Menernza fine buffing compound on a foam buffing wheel. I can not get the compound to load onto the wheel. The compound feels dry and won't load up. It just flakes off. Is there something I need to do to make it load better? Any help would be appreciated.

Far as I know, the foam pads are made for a liquid compound and polish. You need a cloth wheel.

How fast is the wheel spinning ??? Might be an issue .... these are menat to load onto wheels spinning by pretty fast.

Get some Meguiars liquid at the local auto body supply .. start with #2, then go to #7 .. these work with foam better. You will need two buffs, one for each compound ...

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thank you for your quick reply. I thought it was OK to use Menzerna on foam pads. I have one cloth pad I was saving for the extra fine compound. I will try the Mequiars though.

You may find the extra fine is not very effective, I started with fine then Extra fine on 10" wheels at around 1,100 RPM and found that using a swirl remover by hand after fine did the same job as after extra fine. I now use Medium then fine. The extra is ok to touch up a repair but doesn't improve the surface any better than fine.

I used all kinds of automotive products and random orbit polishers on my 1st 3 guitars and did way too much work to get what I wanted in a finish. I can buff out a body in minutes with the 10" buffs instead of hours by hand.

By the way the Menzerna needs to melt onto the buff so friction is needed to load the wheel.

Fred

_________________
Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Menzerna is a pretty firm compound. It is designed for speeds in excess of 800 rpm and cloth wheels. there are many other liquid compound better suited for a fom pad. Menzerna really need the speed to cut at it best. One I doubt that a foam pad wuld hold up to trying to load even Menzerna Extra fine. I suspect the open cell foam would start falling apart.