Need some buffing/polishing bench ideas

Hey Glenn,
No, but I saw a neat-o homemade buffer made from the case of an industrial Singer sewing machine. Nice "reach" to it. single ended though.
My buddy who does quite a bit of small stuff (a bow roller would be large comparatively) has 4 doubled ended buffers lined up along one wall, about 2 feet apart, on what i would call "angle parking". various buffing pad materials and rouges/charges. He often has two or three of them running at one time for progressive steps.
Take care.
Brian Lawson, Windsor, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

What you need are 5 more motors and 5 more "home brew" shafts & bearings.
I have thought about this problem before and I was wondering if an arbor that had a taper like a surface grinder was not the answer. Surface grinders first mount a grinding wheel on an adapter that then interfaces with a taper on the shaft of the grinder. It makes truing the wheel easier each time.
I currently do something similar to what you do, though I might do it differently. I have my shaft and bearing blocks mounted to an aluminum "T" . It is as wide as the bearing holes (almost), and as long as the bearings blocks are apart. The lower "T" section is about 3". The sections are about 1" thick. This is not really important, it could be square. When I use it, I clamp it in the vise on the work bench and run a v-belt back to a motor on the back of the work bench.
This does not solve your problem unless you get 5 more shafts/bearings, but it would save you 5 motors.
I am in the process of putting another arbor together. My $40, 1 1/2 hp Baldor buffer, did not actually work when I got it home. So I took it apart and made lamb bases from the end caps and I'm mounting the shaft on a set of pillow block bearings. I'll clamp it in the vise when I need it.
Hope this helps,
Vince
P.S. I can tighten the belt by rotating the vise a little. And when I loosen the vise, the belt goes slack so I can move from one step to another on the pulley.
Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I have not done anything like this. I have seen projects with large diameter pipe raised on a floor flange above the bench. An X fitting to two arms, machined on the ends to accept bearings. A cap above for access. Timing pulleys on shaft to shaft below bench 1:1 just to transmit power through pipe. Jackshaft below bench. . If you are using 1" shaft you could use MT mounted accessories. If you were willing to give up one end, you could use collets with straight shafts on the accessories. I have an old Science and Mechanics showing some sort of carrousel, but the tools would be too close togather to be of benefit to you.

I have seen something like this at a shoe repair shop.
Regards,
Boris Mohar
Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs Ontario

Howdy! I've toying with the idea of rotating buffer grinder "tree". Picture a 2" stop sign post 6' or 8' long. On the floor is the end bell of a 2~3 hp motor with bearing. The "foot" of the post is has a pin which mates to the bearing. The top of the post has a similar arrangement, either guyed to the wall or to the ceiling. The post is 24" from a wall.
Welded/bolted/attached to the post are 2 sets of 2' angle iron 36" long in a cross pattern form a bird's eye view. On each of the 4 ends, I would mount one of my grinders on a plate. I expect that I can come up with a locking scheme so that I can rotate the post to get to the grinder I want to use and then lock the post to keep it from rotating. This arrangement would give me 4 grinders/buffers in a space 3'x3'x8'. But since most of us rarely make use of the vertical, this shouldn't be too bad. I'll probably have to come up with a slip-ring so I can power the post but not tangle the cords.
As I say, this is still in the planning stages, but it does have the advantage of allowing full access to each wheel and allow the storage of wheel specific items, rouge, polishing compound, extra wheels etc. at each station.
Just a thought
Rick
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I am thinking along the same lines. I have a piece of 3" column that would work and a thrust bearing for the bottom but I will have to figure out a locking mechanism. Maybe a lever mounted on the floor with a peddal on one end and a locking pin on the other but it has to be solid with no play.
One advantage of four separate stations is that I can keep the compound for each wheel close to it. Really frustrating to find someone has used emory on your cotton coloring wheel.
Dr. Spiff wrote:

Jewelers commonly use tapered, threaded spindle attachments, along with leather-center buffing wheels and wood-center brush wheels. After attaching the spindle to the shaft, it takes only a couple of seconds to spin one wheel off and put on a new one. I've only seen the spindles for 1/2" shafts and 4" or 6" wheels, so I don't know if they're available in larger sizes, nor do I know if flap wheels are available for this type of set-up, but it might be worth looking into for your situation.
Bert

The nicest setup I ever saw was a 3 foot square heavy steel table, with a buffer mounted on each corner. It allowed 8 different wheels to be accessed at any time.
The guy had one big 2 HP motor that ran a shaft up the middle, and used some fancy belting arrangement to get power out to the 4 stations.
He also had one 5 inch exhaust pipe that had a funnel behind each stations wheels.
I wish I had a picture of it.
Cobblers used to use a single shaft that ran along one long wall with multiple pillow blocks and wheels mounted every 2 feet or so. I saw the wheel mounts once in a catalog, but can't remember where. They set screwed to the shaft and had a separate mechanism for grabbing the wheel.
2 different systems same idea.

Glenn, With attention given to your last paragraph of your post, I've been thinking of a solution (maybe) for you. However, not knowing the status of your shop, room;layout;walls, etc., this idea may not be feasible. Picture a square of plywood, mounted to a block or studded wall with hinges and ledger strip that has a "leg" on each front corner that could be folded up under the plywood (like a cardtable) toward the wall and then the plywood simply lowered down until it is flat against the wall. This places the "table" out of the way. (of course, height and leg length have to be figured out, but you get the idea). On this "fold down shelf" there could be a triangular shaped piece of plywood, pivoted in the center of the triangle and also in the center of the fold down shelf. (picture a lazy susan with a square bottom and a triangular top). On each point of the triangle would be a double shafted motor, mounted on a swivel with a clamping arrangement that would give you two wheels per motor. By simply unclamping the motor, rotating it 180 degrees and reclamping it, you would "change" to the other wheel (albeit the wheel rotation would be reversed). When you are done with *that* motor and those two wheels, unclamp the triangle, and rotate it to the next motor position and you have two more wheels, etc.etc. You would need 3 double shafted motors, and simply plugging them in and unplugging them would eliminate any fancy electrical work. Hope this is clear enough. At the end of your session, the legs under the table could be folded up and the shelf lowered down against the wall (with the motors/triangle setup still attached). Hope this helps. Ken.