Motor for Beall Buffing System

[Scott Brandstetter]

Those that have this setup, do you have a dedicated motor or use your lathe for this? I would appreciate any comments on what is best. If you use a dedicated motor, what brand, model number. Thanks in advance

[Steve Mawson]

I actually use an old Shopsmith. Slow speed is plenty fast but works with light pressure.

[Brian Brown]

I use a lathe, only because it is available. I have 3 midi lathes (long strange story), I use one, my wife uses one, and the third was going to be sold. Because I needed a motor for my Buffing system, I chose to use the lathe because it was immediately available, and it left me with spare parts for one of the other lathes. I don't need a tail tock or banjo for buffing, so those parts are available if needed. Because all my lathes are Deltas, I need all the spare parts I can get. If you use a dedicated motor, I think it will allow you to design a buffer with more clearance for buffing bigger pieces. The ways won't get in the way.

[Dwight Rutherford]

I use my lathe.

[Paul Gilbert]

I have two motors salvaged form old air conditioner condensers. These fan motors run at 1125 rpm which, according to Beal, is near the ideal speed. Beal sells an adapter for the shaft in these motors. I have them mounted on a stand, so with a flick of a switch I can buff and wax. I do have to change out wheels for the buffing compounds which is done by simply unthreading the wheel from the adaptor. These motors have rather long shafts which makes it easy to get into large bowls. For the ball buffs I have three pneumatic die grinders from HF @ ~$10 each (on sale). I dedicate a grinder to each ball buff.

Make friends with a AC mechanic and get some fan motors.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I have a dedicated Neiko buffer that I got for real cheap. Beal makes adapters for adapting the buffs to a grinder, which is essentially what the no name buffer is, but the buffer comes clean without all the pesky guards that come with a grinder that you have to take off and toss out.
Just my $0.02, I rather run a 1/2 hp buffer to buff than my 2 hp lathe. That thing sucks up some electicity...... I can see it in the electic bill when I turn a lot. $0.35 a kw.....

[Thomas Canfield]

I use my lathes. I have a 1" x8"L adapter for my Nova Comet and then 1 -1/4" x 8 and 12"L adapters for my Powermatic 3520B. It is easy to screw on the adapter and have the variable speed for buffing. That also allows for using different size buffing wheels/buffs.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I, too, use my lathe - didn't want to setup another machine/workstation. It takes about 15 seconds to setup a 12" extension and get the first buff mounted. The results are great, there's the advantage of variable speed and the 12" extension lets me buff bowls up to 23" in diameter...when necessary. Okay, that's pretty rare, but 17 - 18" happens regularly.

[john davey]

I built a stand for an old disk sander I have. This is am old one that you hook a motor to not like the new ones of today that have the motor internal. The motor I used had a spindle on each side. So I added the sander to one end and the Beall system runs off the other. I'll post a pic tomorrow of it as this probably doesn't make great sense...John

[john davey]

Here is the (really292708 bad) picture I promised. As you can see it is just mounted off the back of the disk sander not the motor as I said the other day. Works fine like this for me..John