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I built a simple plywood tower to house a ShopFox buffing arbour and a 1/3HP motor low down away from the work area and used a really long belt. Several things are wrong with it in practice, not the least of which are that it's vastly underpowered and is a pain to use because it's hard to keep it bolted/clamped down to a stable platform.



I'm going to remake it. I have a 1HP motor and pulley (from Grizzly) that should be powerful enough. I'm thinking of making a mobile cabinet unit with drawers/cupboard space, and mounting the motor to the rear (on the top of the buffing station, with the belt horizontal). I think there'll be plenty of space around the buffing wheels so my guitars don't hit on anything.

I'd be interested to see what solutions people have come up with. Please show us some photos of your buffing stations if you don't mind.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

Don't have a lot of extra room, and I already had the drill press, so here's my solution. A foam automotive buffing pad mounted on a bolt of appropriate size that had the head cut off. The rest speaks for itself. Very easy to adjust the buffer speed, and very stable.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Cant afford any machinery so I get these girls around once a week for buffing session

Hey! Those are MY girls! They said they only buffed for ME!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

V. funny guys!

Any serious answers with pictures, or did y'all just go buy a ready-made buffing station?

Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

No real answers, but I'm interested in seeing some ideas, too. Good timing, as I'm finishing a guitar with nitro right now. Leaves me a month or so to get my buffing rig going. So far, I've chucked my buffs in the drill press, but I've got an arbor pretty much like yours now. I'll probably mount mine on a bench along one wall, thinking maybe a single platform with the buffer, motor and all mounted to a plywood frame that can be clamped to a bench when in use and hung on a wall or otherwise stored when not being used. That way I could clamp it to whatever surface I happen to have available at the time. The platform would just extend a foot or so past the bench to allow plenty of freedom of movement around the arbor.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like this idea. A torsion box base would be super stable and strong cantilevered over the edge of a bench. And if it was hung off the corner of the bench instead of the center, it would really leave lots of room around the buffs.

Don't think I'd go the mobile cabinet route just for stability reasons. I don't think something on casters would ever be stable enough for a buffer.

Go check out the MIMF library, too. You'll find a few different setups there.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Here's mine.

I ordered the 3/4 inch right- and left-hand nuts in advance from MSC, along with the 5 inch shaft pully and the 4-step motor pully (speeds approx 1380, 1170, 910, 690), and two ball bearings in pressed steel, not cast iron, housings, cheap. I cut the buff flange pullys out of 1/2 inch ply, 4 inches in dia.

I had already been to a local machine shop and found a cutoff of 1 inch shaft that they would turn shoulders on and thread. I left the nuts, pully, and bearing with them so there wouldn't be any fitting problems.

I was looking for a wider spread between the buffs, so I ordered a 36 inch shaft. If I was going to do this again AND had more floor space, I would order a 1 - 1/4 or 1 - 1/2 by 48 inch shaft.

The base is a glued ply box, and there are three 50 lb bags of sand in the bottom. The overhanging bearing table has steel shelf brackets tieing it to the base. This thing doesn't move around, unless you have to move it, and then you tilt it backward about 5 degrees to lower the casters to the floor.

The motor hanging on the side of the base drives a flex shaft with smaller buffs, for tight corners and frets.

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

Well, that worked out of order.

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

Again

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

When I ordered the stand from Caswell Plating for $28 last month along with 1100 RPM buffer listed right above it. Scroll to the bottom.

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/34hpbuffkit.html

I admire your ingenuity Allen but one good clunk on that column an there a problem. Have you ever thought of putting some foam or wrapping a towel around that!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Here's mine. I call it "The Buffinator" Seriously though, With the generosity of Hesh and JJ I was able to put together a very versatile setup. JJ and I are even now, I still owe you Heshie!
The Stew Mac one is running at 1750 RPM with 12 inch Domet and Canton wheels for my general first buffing stages. I then move around to the 1100 RPM spinning 14 inch Muslins to finish things off with the finer compounds.
Notice every hard surface is padded (even the shafts) and the anti fatigue mats on the floor. They are really nice on the feet after standing there for two plus hours bringing up the shine. Since this photo was taken I have moved "The Buffinator" to it's own room and I am rigging up dust collection. These things make a mess!

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jw ( o)===:::

Joe my friend the Buffinator looks very cool and if you turned it upside down you might have a Prius to drive......

Is the dedicated room going to be padded - walls, floor, ceiling so that I feel right at home the next time I come over?

BTW bro you owe me nothing - that was a congrats on your new business gift.

Seriously, that looks like a very good solution for $28. Would still have to modify it in order to hang a motor off the back.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Here's mine. It's a bit unconventional but if you happen to have a large metal lathe hanging around the shop it's an easy way to make a buffer. The wheel is mounted on the end of a piece of 1 1/4" pipe. The other end of the pipe is clamped in the chuck. When I'm not using it, I just loosen the chuck and hang the pipe and wheel on the wall. The belts on the lathe give me a variety of speeds.

Mark

Dave, I'm sure you'll find some great ideas here from everyone but since you have a shop fox I thought I'd show you what I did with mine. My motor is underpowered too but I like the way it wobbles along. It's very sturdy mounted to the wall like this if you have the space. The nice thing about an underpowered motor is you don't get burn through.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Allen, what speed works best on your drill press/buffer?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

James, can you tell me the length from the motor to the end of the shaft on that machine? I can't find that measurement on the Caswell site. Thanks.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Here is mine .. about as simple as it gets, 2x4s, a switch, pillow blocks and a 3/4 shaft, turned down to 1/2 inch for lock nuts to hold the buffs on, motor is gravity mounted on a hinged piece of ply - the whole thing is bolted to the wall via the shelf above it, so it doesnt vibrate much at all. Plywood stiffeners for the buffs .. this is an older pic though, I am running the SM 12 inch buffs (one per side). I cant say because I have never seen one, but the buff station some of you have must not turn as freely as this unit (bearings) does - I am only running a 1/5 HP motor at 1725, and unless I really lean into it, it wont slow down much in normal use.

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

Sure thing, Howard. I'll measure when I get home this afternoon.

I see a couple of unsupportd or I should probably say unrestrained (not tied to floor or wall) systems. I tried that at first but mine walked and vibrated too much.

I like my motor on a hinged system where the weight of the motor is the tension on the belt. that way if somthing grabed the wheel with enough force the belt will slip and the wheel will stop. Actually I have the tension where the belt tensioned less than full motor weight, so that much more than normal buffing friction will cause the belt to slip.

I do that now Billy. Also helps with cleanup of buffing compound.

Rich, I usually have it set up at around the 350 rpm mark. It sort of depends on whether you are able to use most of the buffing pad flat, as on the back or top. When you only get to use the outer edge on the sides, you might want to drop the speed a bit. You can also go much faster, but the potential for burning or pulling the finish goes up with the rpm as well. A full body takes me just over 1/2 hour with this set up. A neck is less than 10 minutes. Then just put the buffing pad away and your shop space is back to normal.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Howard, the shaft is 10 3/4" total on each side of the motor, and the step up that the buffs snug up against is at 7 1/2".

Here's mine. It is mounted to the wall with 2 heavy door hinges and hung by 2 chains. One side has a turnbuckle so I can get both chains taught. When I am finished with it, I just lower it and it is out of the way (I cover the wheels with a plastic bag when it isn't in use to keep it clean).

Another advantage with this design is that there is nothing underneath to bang the instrument against.

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John Ressler