trueing buffing wheel

[Paul Gilbert]

I have been diligently working on my skew skills. The number one priority is to get the edge razor sharp. My honing technique seems to be less than stellar and I am looking for ways to punch it up a bit. I have a 1" wide 8" buffing wheel that I bought years ago in a carving supply shop and mounted it on a 3450 rpm motor with an adaptor-arbor for a grinding wheel. The wheel is badly out of round and vibrates badly.

I charged the wheel with black compound and forced the skew bevel onto the wheel (it bounces badly). After buffing I could shave hair from my arm with my skew, so I want to pursue this course in sharpening. I tried to true the wheel with a spindle roughing gouge, and a wood rasp. No luck with either, but it took five minutes at the grinder to restore the edge on my SRG and the rasp is probably ruined.

Do any of you have any suggestions on rounding up a buffing wheel? I think that I will probably just go buy another one.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Paul,

From what is the buffing wheel made? Is it cloth, MDF?

[Paul Gilbert]

It is cloth, sewn together. I am not sure what type of fabric it is. I started out with MDF, about 12 - 14" in diameter that I turned on my lathe. That one ran true and without vibration, but it cut almost like my 180 grit CBN wheel on the grinder.

[Bill White]

I use a buffing "rake" made from spent bandsaw blades stacked together and taped on the ends. I cut the blade pieces to about 12". Different widths and tooth counts make for the ability to fine-tune the raking efforts to the needed surface of the buff.
Last ones I made used the tape, then dipped the taped ends in the plastic stuff for tool handles. Made 'em nice and easy to hold.
You'll get a lot of lint at first, but the rake sure restores a loaded buff.
Bill

[Thomas Canfield]

The 8" wheel at 3450 rpm is a lot faster than most recommendations. A 1750 rpm motor should be at top end. That will eliminate a lot of the vibration problems.

[Dave Cullen]

I use 6" wheels at 3450. A different wheel for each compound, so they don't get contaminated. When a wheel gets tattered I replace it.

Cloth wheels shouldn't get so out of round that the buffer shakes and bounces. I would suspect that the wheel isn't centered on the arbor. Maybe time for a new one? http://www.swmetal.com/

[robert baccus]

Usually sharpening (honing) is done on a very hard wheel--felt, mdf ect to prevent rounding the edge. Green chrome compound is a favorite with carvers.