frankenstien motor madness

[kbadkar]

I got a 1/3 hp, 1725 rpm motor on the way for $40 including shipping. It should work... I hope.

Now I'm figuring how to put together a McMaster order for a 3 step pulley deal with pillow blocks and 5/8" shaft for a double ended buffing station, primarily.

What type of shaft do you typically use or would you use - fully keyed, D-profile (better for set screws, they say), or threaded ends like the woodcraft or grizzly ones. The pulley has a keyway and a set screw. Having threaded ends seems limiting. Otherwise, what arbor/adapters/mandrels would be prefered for attaching the buff to the shaft?... tapered spindles? Is it as easy as it seems to switch out dedicated buffs and do they true up again when back on? Of course, I could just get drill chucks for a 5/8" shaft and use the arbors I've been using on my lathe, but that seems silly.

Is a 12" shaft pretty standard, or should I go longer to have more room to work between buffs and from the support/pillow blocks?

Anyone put together something similar?

[KurtHuhn]

If it's for a dedicated buffing station, I see no harm in using the ones with threaded ends. The mandrel looks long enough that, with a quick trip to the hardware store, you could get two buffs on each side - brown, white, wax, and final.

The other thing you could do is get everything separately from McMaster-Carr or the other place (I forget the name, but it's equally as huge) and custom build it. That way your buffing setup is truly tuned to your needs. That, however, can get seriously expensive.

Some musings:
- I prefer 5/8 shafts, but there's nothing wrong with 1/2" for our purposes
- keyways are great for pulleys, but not strictly necessary for stuff not related to power transmisison
- d-shafts are good, but not as good as keyways for pulleys
- 1/2" hole buffs are really very common, and very high quality ones can be found easily. I get mine at Delvies Plastics.
- I hate tapered spindles.
- 12" shaft length is plenty as long as you've got your pillow blocks and step pullet planned out. But 14" will get you a lot of wiggle room.

Or. you could go and get one of these:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Buffing-Assembly/H3559
It's got a step pulley included, and has really long shafts - more than long enough to get two buffs on either side.

[Frank]

Or. you could go and get one of these:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Buffing-Assembly/H3559
It's got a step pulley included, and has really long shafts - more than long enough to get two buffs on either side.

Personally, I'd go for this setup. You'll have more versatility, especially if you occasionally want to buff something large or long.

Having more than 2 buffing wheels permanently mounted is a nice setup, but it's not a necessity. Honestly, it takes less than 1/2 a minute to change wheels on the above setup.

I've used many different buffing compounds, but I really like the Menzerna brand.

[kbadkar]

That grizzly buffing assembly thing is pretty cool and less cumbersome than what I imagined doing. Having 4 buffs running and not having to switch them out sounds like a dream come true. You think the threads on the arbor are long enough that you can get enough space between buffs such that you don't knock your pipe against the wrong buff? The arbor on that buffing assembly is 3/4" diameter though... 1/2" would be more useful and would fit the pile of buffs I already have. If I had a metal lathe, I wouldn't have to worry about adapting.

What's to hate about tapered spindles? I remember someone recommending it on this forum.

[kbadkar]

Having more than 2 buffing wheels permanently mounted is a nice setup, but it's not a necessity. Honestly, it takes less than 1/2 a minute to change wheels on the above setup.

Maybe it doesn't take too long to switch out, but I always have problems with them truing up again. I leave all my buffs on a dedicated arbor (for a drill chuck), so they don't end up all lopsided. Shouldn't you leave the buff on the arbor with such a set up?

[Frank]

Maybe it doesn't take too long to switch out, but I always have problems with them truing up again. I leave all my buffs on a dedicated arbor (for a drill chuck), so they don't end up all lopsided. Shouldn't you leave the buff on the arbor with such a set up?

I'm not sure I entirely understand what you mean by lopsided. If the centre hole of the wheel is the same diameter as the arbor, there shouldn't be any difference across the diameter of the wheel when the wheel is remounted on the arbor. To keep the buffing wheel 90 degrees to the shaft, I use large 3 1/2" fender type washers either side of the wheel.

[kbadkar]

Here's my problem. When I first mount a new buff on an arbor and present the compound to the wheel, I get a thud-thud-thud feel. You can see the compound is only contacting the "high spot" on the wheel. Then I trim the bugger to get it as round as possible in relation to it's position on the arbor. This time the compound covers the entire buff edge and there's no thudding. Getting it good and round is the difference between using a nice light touch, versus having to apply a lot of pressure to get proper buff edge contact.

I've found that once I've dismounted a buff from an arbor, and remount it, it looses that nice concentricity since it's position on the arbor is a little different than before, even though the through hole in the buff and the arbor mandrel deal are both 1/2".

Is this just me that has this problem?

[Frank]

OK, I see what you're saying. You like it to remain super concentric. In that case, you would be better off with a dedicated buffing station with all your wheels mounted.

[Smitty]

I use a drill chuck for mine and keep the arbors on full time. I mount them on a peg board on the wall to keep them round when I am not polishing.
I would love a dedicated 4 wheel set up though. That Grizzley deal looks like it would do nice, and the price seems good too, if shipping isn't too awful.

[Frank]

I would love a dedicated 4 wheel set up though. That Grizzley deal looks like it would do nice, and the price seems good too, if shipping isn't too awful.

Keep in mind, it still requires a motor and pulley. Shipping isn't too steep, around 16 bucks: http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2008/main/699

The threaded portion on the shafts might just be long enough to accommodate 2 wheels either end with enough room for buffing small items like pipes. With a large enough die (or lathe) you could extend the threads.

[kbadkar]

I would jump on it if the shaft was 1/2". I have too many buffs with 1/2" mounting hole to change over to a 3/4" arbor.