Beall bowl buffs

[Eric Sears]

This is probably a stupid question, but do the Beall Bowl buffs come with the different compounds? i.e white diamond, carnuaba and tripoli waxes? I want the glossy/shiny look and it seems like this is the best way to get it.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Eric - if you buy the buffing system - it has everything to get started. Not advocating this particular vendor - just showing it as an example of what the system consists of.
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/store/Finishing___Buffing___Wood_Buffing_System___wood_b uff_sys?Args=

Hope that helps.

[Eric Sears]

Right, I saw that the buffing system includes everything, which is why I am curious if the bowl buffs themselves include the waxes. It is slightly confusing when the straight buffing system has a list of what is included, while the bowl buffs do not.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Eric,

Each buff is made of a slightly different make up of cloth materials and is designed for a particular buffing compound.

I have the Beal buffing system and each buff has a color code to indicate which buffing compound should be used with it.

I bought the whole system initially and thus got everything. Since then I've added additional buffs and bought replacement compounds as necessary.

IMHO buffing has a significant improvement to one's finishing results.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Eric - my apologies - skipped over the word buff! When I picked up my 2" buffs - they did not come with any compounds - just the buffs. I think it is because they are sold as sort of an add-on to the system.

[Troy Donson]

Eric, as far as I know, the bowl buffs themselves are an "accessory" to the Beall Buffing system and are purchased seperately from the actual compounds. Whereas if you bought one of the actual Beall Buffing "Kit"s you get wheels, compunds, adapters, etc. and would then buy your bowl buffs seperately.

Personally I like dealling with http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/ for my "supplies". Not affiliated, just like their products...

Hope that helps,

Troy

[Dave Schwarzkopf]

I have both the 3-wheel system and the 2" and 4" bowl buff sets. While the wheel system had compounds included, the bowl buff sets did not.

On the plus side, the compounds/waxes can last quite awhile, so it's a good value for your buck.

[Thomas Canfield]

Eric,

I suggest you also look at http://www.donpencil.com/ for buffing system. I had the 3 wheel Beale on single shaft and later purchased the buffing system from Don Pencil including the 8" adapter shaft which gets the wheels and buffs further away from the headstock and also down inside a hollow vessel.

In addition, I recently found out that you can use the little 1" or so buffing wheels with 1/8" shafts in a dremel type tool with Tripoli or other buffing compounds and waxes for the really small hollow forms and bowls. You do need to operate at lower speeds for the buffing.

[Brian Novotny]

Eric, as far as I know, the bowl buffs themselves are an "accessory" to the Beall Buffing system and are purchased seperately from the actual compounds. Whereas if you bought one of the actual Beall Buffing "Kit"s you get wheels, compunds, adapters, etc. and would then buy your bowl buffs seperately.

Personally I like dealling with http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/ for my "supplies". Not affiliated, just like their products...

Hope that helps,

Troy
Yeah, I just bought 3 wheels from them. I studied that the bealls buffers consist of 1 all cotton, 1 1/2flannel 1/2cotton and 1 flannel. Well you can get all of these for $15 total at caswell. the canton flannel is the cotton/flannel wheel. while the domet flannel is the pure flannel. Then at craft supplies the 3 waxes are like $5.00 a piece, mount a $5 arbor in your drill chuck and that's basically the beall system for $40. All beall did was take an old idea and market it to woodturners.

[Greg Just]

I'm with Troy and Brian. I purchased the buffing wheels and mushrooms from Caswell and made my own system for a lot less. What for their 2 for 1 sales.

[Eric Sears]

Unfortently I'm rather impatient sometimes, especially since I'll be gone all week and won't be able to finish the three bowls I want to buff. Plus woodcraft sent me a 10% coupon, and its a good excuse to get out of the house. Thanks for the info though, I'll make sure to pick up the compounds while I'm there.

[Larry Marley]

I purchased my Beal bowl buffs as a kit that included the mandrel and compounds.
I later added the regular buffs because they work better for getting the detail in pepper mills where the bowl buff won't quite reach.