Buffing bowls

[Julie Tanner]

I am wondering how to go about buffing bowls.
I have seen the bluffing kits online, I would like to know how this is done.
I the 3 wheels and the different was sticks..


thanks

[Ben Gastfriend]

The three wheels won't nessesarily work for buffing the inside of bowls. They will work for the outside however.The system I use for my small bowls is fairly simple, and I do it all on my lathe.

For the inside of bowls, I have a Beall Bowl Buff for Tripoli and Carnuba (I don't like the white diamond), which attach right into the headstock of my lathe on a special mandrel. (This whole system is fairly inexpensive).
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For the ouside, I use a pair of regular buffing wheels, attached right into the lathe headstock.
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These can both be found at Craft Supplies USA.

Hope this helps.

[robert hainstock]

Julie,
I have always haand buffed my pieces. I use an old piece of drapery material, and auto polishing compound,(same as white stuff on a stick). I then wax it with paste wax. Not as durable as carnuba, but pretty pleasing all the same. Buffing systems are a very recent developement. I have seen the Beall system and realy like how it performs to the point I ordered the PSI system. As to buffing the inside of the bowl; it depends on rhe size of the bowl. Or you go to those puffy things mentioned above.
If you look at the post of my urn last week, that was buffed with the rag and car polish stuff. GOOD LUCK.:D
BOB

[Johnathan Bussom]

Julie, I don't have the buffs for the inside of bowls yet but did get the Beal system directly from them and am very much pleased with it.

:DThe reason I didn't get the bowl buffs is I needed an option left for Santa to bring me for Christmas, after showing Mrs Clause what they did to the outside of the bowl they are on the list.

BTW if you get it from Beal they send a dvd with instructions....

[Neal Addy]

Julie, this video shows how it's done.

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=2036&mode=videos#tabs

Trust me, a buffing system (whatever brand you choose) is WELL worth the money. You'll be amazed at the results. I do recommend the single wheels over the 3-on-1 system unless you only plan to do pens and very small piece (no larger than bottlestopper size).

[Julie Tanner]

thanks folks,
the video was a great idea.

another question,
how far do you sand up to ( 400?), and what finish are you using before going to the buffing system ?

[Neal Addy]

I usually sand from 80 to at least 800, sometimes 1200.

My favorite finish is Seal-A-Cell. One coat will do it. Let it cure for at least 12 hours (on most woods) then go to the buffer.

A couple of pieces of buffer advice...

First and foremost... HANG ON TO THE PIECE!! The buffing wheels (especially Tripoli and White Diamond) can grab a piece right out of your hands before you can even blink. Don't present an edge (i.e. rim, foot, etc) to the buffer and don't use it on pieces with lots of voids or inclusions that can be grabbed.

You haven't had the full Beall experience until you've launched your first bowl. NASA is still tracking a couple of mine.

Second, Tripoli and Wax are safe to use in most situations but be careful using the White Diamond on dark woods. Dark woods with open grain will pick up the grit in the compound and give the piece a milky finish that's tough to get off. You can probably safely use it on dark woods that have been sanded smooth and don't have any open pores. Experiment and see what works and what doesn't.

Good luck and be sure to post pics of your first buffified piece.

[Neal Addy]

Julie, retrospectively I gave my standard off-the-cuff answer on sanding and it's true that I do it that way. But in fairness it's not necessarily the right way to do it.

Most turners (including me) tend to sand a piece to death before trying to apply finish. The smooth surface produced by high-grit sanding doesn't allow the finish to soak into the grain at all. You end up with a polished piece of wood covered with a thin layer of finish. Yes, it looks pretty but there's not much actual "finishing" going on.

The correct way (for those who have the patience) is to sand to no more than 220 grit then apply your finish of preference. Allow it to dry, then sand at 320 and apply a second coat. At that point you're done. There are many variations to this method but most finishing gurus will give you something close to it.

I only throw this out because we don't often hear proper finishing techniques discussed in the turning world. More often than not we only hear how high folks sand and what finish they use (as I'm guilty of above).

Hope this helps!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Julie on sanding I very seldom go past 320. Like Neal I have found that finish doesn't soak in as well going higher. After finishing mostly with minwax antique oil on show pieces, General finishes Seal-A-Cell topped with Arm-R-Seal for projects used for food. On small items I use spray lacquer or wipe on poly. Then I will let them cure for a week or so then use the beall buff system on them.

[Johnathan Bussom]

Julie,
As said by others on this forum, the Beal is not a tradeoff for sanding,
as to how far you go is up to you, like how picky are you! If you are selling then be picky, 400 will give a nice finish if correctly done, sometimes I do go higher depending on the item. Mouldings etc for the home here I barely touch but a pen I might go to 1600 if everything is right!

Another thing is the question you asked, Finish!

The bowls that I did the outside of were segmented bowls made in (I'm ashamed to say) 2004 and were only finished with (if I remember correctly at my age) mineral oil, they sat on top of my kitchen cabinets since.

I did do a couple pens that had Behlens Woodturners finish applied while on the lathe, the BWTF did do a nice job so I thought, but I and others could really see the difference after the buff.

I just finished a project, Red Oak American Flag case in honor of my cousin who served during the Korean ??? Conflict and will be giving it to his wife tomorrow, I only used Danish oil and 24 hours later applied the buff, I am not happy with it, shortcuts just don't get it.

I had a scrap piece of Red Oak crown molding that I made for my dining room that I had applied MinnWax water based PolyCrylic (the easiest finish I have found to date) and only applied the Carnuba wax to while feeling disappointment with my flag case and could really kick myself for not spending another 2 hours waiting time for the finish to be applied and dried, I do believe it would have made a difference.

In the future I plan on sanding fine and applying a finish before applying the buff, others may have different opinions and help us out but till then...

Oh, be sure to finish Walnut before (or not use white diamond) buffing!