Buffing tools, equimpent and technique

[fender3x]

Gearcalc is the one that I use

https://locost7.info/gearcalc.php

Trust the auto racer to have the more sophisticated tool!

The one advantage I see with the online calculator that I used is that you can change the metrics easily. Menzerna publishes how fast the speed at the surface of the wheel (tangential speed) should be for their products in meters per second. I am in the US so the measurement I had for the diameter of the wheel was in inches. I could put in my measurements just as I had them, without the need to convert. (It does fully metric too, of course).

I like that yours could do all the speeds on a drill press at once, although you'd need to know the gear ratios. In my case all I have are the RPMs

[fender3x]

BTW, there is a lot of YouTube devoted to DIY buffing, most of which are which are pulley driven. I haven't seen any that give the tangential speed of the buffing wheel. Some give RPM, like the Stew Mac machine which is semi-DIY.

If you're making a buffing machine, you probably should figure out the tangential speed so that you at least don't exceed the speed of Menzerna...or the Stew Mac which is probably as close to a standard of the industry as there is.

Menzerna: 6-24 m/s
Stew Mac: 14 m/s

The most expensive component is likely to be the motor. There is an inverse correlation between cost of the motor and the turning speed. Cheap motors mostly turn faster, The speed is determined by the number of poles and the cycles in Hz of the mains. (50hz in Europe, 60hz in the US...in AUS, I am not sure...)



I haven's found a single calculator that will figure out the tangential velocity of a belt driven wheel, but if you know the RPM from the motor, you should be able to figure the RPM of the pulleys using this:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/pulley

...and then the tangential velocity of the wheel using the driven pulley RPMs and this:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/rpm

FWIW ;-)

[fender3x]

Here's something I should have watched...



So I had a brilliant idea to try with my new buffing device. I have a maple fingerboard ready to polish. I have frets that have been leveled and crowned. Both need polishing...why not do both at the same time? Here's why not:



You think that's bad? At first I thought I could wipe off the gritty carbon residue. Nope. So, how about a cleaner? Maybe a little denatured alcohol? That did clean it..., but any place it sat very long it also softened the finish to the point where it came up...



So I will sand back a bit, and refinish the fretboard...and a few places where drips sat a bit long on the back of the neck. And then I'll have another go at it. This time, I will try to do what he says in the video. A good six coats of finish on the frets as well as the fretboard. Then LEAVE THE FINISH ON THE FRETS when I take it to buff. Once I have that done, I can re-polish the frets...using the the approach that did not go wrong...

[fender3x]

...to buff the frets with a rotary tool like this:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7FItS2P9bVI

I used a fret guard like these.



I put a piece of blue tape on each side for a little more protection. The blue tape alone would have been enough protection, though.

That worked great on both the rosewood and the maple boards...but I should have polished the maple board first. On the maple board it worked great.*


*OK...with the proviso that I burned out my ancient, 2nd hand Dremel tool about half way through the first neck. I would have switched to my cheap knockoff rotary tool, but the last time I used it the motor failed catastrophically, sending little pieces plastic shrapnel all over the place. So the rotary tool approach wored well after I ran to the big box store and got a middle-of-the-line-genuine Dremel rotary tool.

[fender3x]

I did learn one sort of cool thing with using the 25mm (1 inch) rotary tool polishing wheels... In a previous post I explored etching the chrome off of a neck plate to create a logo.

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...hlight=etching

...So, while it's relatively easy to remove the chrome, the copper under the chrome begins to oxidize immediately, leaving a kind of mottled look. I wondered if I could use the same rotary tool buffing technique to buff up the copper without damaging the remaining chrome. Here's my result after a few minutes using Menzerna 204 (medium) compound, followed by 175 (very fine) compound:



What's funny about this is that since I did the original etching, the copper has become more oxidized and darker. Meanwhile the, now shiny, copper one doesn't contrast as well with the chrome. So, This will work...and could be preserved by putting a coat of clear over it so that it doesn't re-oxidize. But, somewhat ronically, I don't like it as well as I like the oxidized version, so I have decided not to do it with the others. Still I may find a use for it... or others may ;-)