Watch This BEFORE You Buy A Buffer: Are They Useful?

alrighty guys welcome back I recently purchased a buffer for my shop and this machine took me a while to find and required a significant amount of research into buying process so I figured I'd do a quick tool review right at the front it needs to be said that the buffer is hailed as the most dangerous tool in a knife maker shop there have been numerous accounts of knife makers being killed when using a buffer by the wheel grabbing the knife they were working on and slinging it around into their chest for this reason some makers have taken the precaution of wearing chain mail and building guards around the buffers personally I only plan on using this machine on handles and fittings but just be aware that it can be dangerous this Powertec 8-inch buffer was the cheapest unit I was able to find that had my desired parameters the first of these parameters was the speed many buffers come in at a high 3 450 RPMs however this one comes in at 1750 RPMs which depending on who you talk to is the most sufficient speed from knife making and is safer I found so far that this speed is plenty fast for my application the other features I was looking for was eight inch buffing wheels and longer shafts which this machine satisfies some other features of this machine include a 5 8 of an inch shaft and a one-half horsepower motor in measures 23 inches from end to end and the two mounting holes have a diameter of 0.43 inches the shafts come out to around five and a half inches from the body of the machine the base measures 9 inches by seven and three quarters of an inch with rubber feet at all four corners it came with some wheels in the box which was pretty nice to get me started there are multiple buffing wheel construction methods which yield different polishing results from what I found online the suggestion is to use loose cotton muslin wheels for buffing handles if you want slightly more structure in your wheel you can use a spiral sewn muslin wheel which is what came with the machine how far the stitching goes out on the wheel will also determine the stiffness or softness of the feel when buffing and is varied by the manufacturer changing wheels is pretty straightforward on the right shaft there is a set of flats for your backing wrench which will allow you to remove the nut on the end then your wheel will just slide off the ability to change out wheels quickly is nice since I use different polishing compounds and wheels when polishing wood versus polishing metal fittings as a side note I generally store the wheels wrapped in plastic so that they don't get contaminated with other shop dust and potentially higher grit compounds while we're flirting with the topic of compounds I'll note that I've been using two different compounds in my shot I'll use the green buffing compound for metal fittings and the white compound for a handle material both manufactured by Maverick at this point in the review I think it may be helpful to go through my standard operating procedure for finishing a handle I start off by rough shaping my handle on the 2 by 72 belt grinder with a 60 grit belt and then finish on the grinder with a 120 grit belt on the hand sanding bench I start off with 320 grit Rhino wet sandpaper then step up the 600 grit 1000 grit and finally 1200 grit paper at this point I head on over to the buffer I load up the wheel with some white compound and start buffing the handle on metal fittings I generally sand them up to either 600 or a thousand grit and then hit them with the green Compound on the buffer so far these progressions have done a great job for me but note that I'm new to buffing so I may make some tweaks to the process in future builds after watching some Macau Royers videos I really wanted to try out a Scotch Brite wheel on my buffer from what I understand these wheels were designed for a general polishing and deburring of metal parts and like Scotch Brite belts they can speed up the finishing process greatly in the past I've used Scotch Brite belts on my blade bevels before Stone washing full tank knives and I found that they are great for achieving a consistent and smooth finish the wheels from Scotch Brite are pretty expensive so I figured I'd try out one of the knockoff versions on Amazon which had pretty good reviews the version I ordered came in at 320 grit with a 200 millimeter diameter a 25 millimeter width and a 20 millimeter Center hole this hole is obviously too large for the 5 8 of an inch shaft on the buffer however at this price point we can't be too picky I chucked up a piece of aluminum in my lathe and got the work turning down a bushing this bushing fit great in the wheel and I'll probably end up making another one since I also ordered a 240 grit version of this wheel I'm still in the testing phase with these wheels so make sure to stay tuned to the channel to see my results so far it seems like a handy wheel to leave on one side of the buffer since I find myself using it for General deburring in my shop on the metal finishing side I've had success bringing up the pieces I'm working with to a hand sanded finish of 600 grit and then using this wheel to get a satin finish on the piece all right so after all that it's safe to say that I'm really happy to have a proper buffer in my shop if you found this video helpful in making your decision please consider using my affiliate links to these items in the description below the income generated from these links helps keep the channel going if you're new here and want to see some cool knife making videos and Tool reviews in the future make sure to hit that subscribe button until next time I'll catch y'all on the flip side [Music] [Applause] foreign

Channel: Red Beard Ops

Views: 92,181

Keywords: red beard ops, knife maker, knife making, knife making buffer, knife buffer, wood buffer, buffer, cheapest buffer, 1750 buffer, low speed buffer, economy buffer system, buffing machine, blade smithing buffer, woodworking buffer, knife making buffing machine, how to buff, cheap buffing machine, economy buffing machine, cheapest buffing machine, polishing metal, polishing wood, how to buff a knife, best buffer, tool review, tool review guy, tool review channels

Id: tv_6tmtwRUY

Length: 5min 46sec (346 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2022