Anyone heard of these buffing wheels?

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Thu May 30, 2002 9:04 am

I know these things exist, because I've seen them with my own eyes...

I have a friend that I used to tool around with in the Outlands who owned rubberized buffing wheels, and now I feel as if I spotted a unicorn.

They were bench grinder wheels that, as far as I can figure, had some kind of buffing compound suspended in rubber. Now, whenever I ask about them, I usually get looks like I'm the one with a horn growing out of his forehead.

So, I ask you panel of experts (ya know what they say, an ex is a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure):

Has anyone seen these? If so, where? I really could use one now... but did I hallucinate the whole thing?

HELMUT

white mountain armoury · Thu May 30, 2002 9:24 am

i use a rubber expanding wheel but it still requires the use of belts

Sasuke · Post by **Sasuke** » Thu May 30, 2002 9:29 am

I got a chance to visit Darius and see his shop. He had wheels on his grinder that sound exactly like what you are describing. I am pretty sure they are Scotchbrite wheels. They turn up on ebay once in a while. They tend to be expensive.
I got some small ones made by Cratex (?) that are basically like an abrasive pencil eraser in disc form.

I just did a search and couldn't find any on ebay but found some dealers on Yahoo! Here is one:
http://www.jbfc.com/newpage12.htm
Hope that helps.
Sasuke

------------------
www.oaksarmoury.com

[This message has been edited by Sasuke (edited 05-30-2002).]

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Thu May 30, 2002 10:05 am

Actually, "cratex" + "ebay" got me exactly what I need!

Thanks, Sasuke!

HELMUT

Vermin · Post by **Vermin** » Thu May 30, 2002 11:17 am

You should really try both out before you invest a good bit of money-if you can.
I realize this may not be possible.

In MY experience, Scotchbrite kicks the butt of Craytex, and I've used both.

But that's just me.....

VvS

Pheylin Quinn · Post by **Pheylin Quinn** » Thu May 30, 2002 12:16 pm

CALL Tommy @ www.buffnstuff.com. He can get them in quantity. That is who I get mine from.

Reinhard von Lowenhaupt · Thu May 30, 2002 12:42 pm

Helmut,

I know exactly what you're looking for. I used to work for a firearms manufacturer, and we used these to 'buff' any milling marks or small dings out of the receivers before plating. I'll check by this weekend to see who their supplier is.

------------------
Per Mortem Vinco.

schreiber · Post by **schreiber** » Thu May 30, 2002 1:00 pm

Thanks everyone!

Actually, I put bids on some cratex stuff on ebay, but there are two days left and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get them, since the price is still pretty low.

I need these for two reasons. First of all, I figure that it will make cleaning hammers a lot faster (Tuesday night I spent two hours working on an auto body hammer... from 50 grit down to baking soda by hand... great results, but I'm not sure I want to do that for the others).

The other reason is that I just got into forming crests and flutes, and I think they'd be great for final cleaning up of the edge.

HELMUT

Sasuke · Post by **Sasuke** » Thu May 30, 2002 2:48 pm

I agree with Vermin. Scotchbrite are way better but they also cost a ton more. If you can afford the Scotchbrite get them.
Sasuke

------------------
www.oaksarmoury.com

Pheylin Quinn · Post by **Pheylin Quinn** » Thu May 30, 2002 3:12 pm

I use Scotchbrite on an expander wheel. Works great.

wcallen · Post by **wcallen** » Thu May 30, 2002 4:44 pm

If you are into playing with alternatives....

There is something called a setup wheel. It is a buffing wheel with grit glued to the outside - and it basically makes a somewhat flexible grinder with whatever grit you want.

This is probably closer to the authentic way to do things (when it comes to abrasives - use anything you want, you will be there a long time anyway...). It also allows you to customize things pretty easily and the initial investment isn't too aweful.

You can make them using Formax's liquid sandpaper or other alternatives. The way we started was with a separate glue and loose grit - that allowed us to have lots of choices without having to buy lots of gallons of liquid sandpaper.

I have found that different people use different things and you tend to love what you are used to. We used to use a combination of resin-backed abrasive disks, setup wheels, greaseless compounds and then stainless buffing compounds. Others use lots of different grits on belt sanders and buffing compounds. ScotchBrite wheels are very nice (but expensive) for specific jobs.

If you have the chance to play with someone else's abrasives to see how they work you will be happier.

In my experience (once you start doing really finished armour) no matter how you do it abrasives become one of your larger supply type expenses.

I don't think I have seen two armourers who use exactly the same process in finishing.

We made someone polish a helmet by hand once.... Luckily he had a union job and he could do it at work and get paid for it because it took forever. Power and lots of abrasives are your friend.

Wade

Krag · Post by **Krag** » Thu May 30, 2002 5:12 pm

I used many types of the scotch-brite wheels when I worked down at NASA. They put a great finish that can be left as a satin finish, or polished out with compound. BUT, they will round over flutes and such. You can specify the density of the wheel to help avoid this, but then you start to lose your blending ability of the wheel. Still, I'd love to have several for the shop. They would make elbow/knee cops and helm panels a snap. I was surprised at the usable life of them also. We deburred all sorts of rough cut metal edges all day long. We still had the same wheels the end of summer as we started with, and they still had half their life left!

Oh yeah...I have some small rubberized compound wheels. I don't like them. They are too agressive. They'll take out grind lines...but replace them with smooth troughs which leave a rippled effect! Maybe I just wasn't careful enough!?

------------------
Krag von Berghen
KragAxe Armoury

Member's Pics

[This message has been edited by Krag (edited 05-30-2002).]

Vermin · Post by **Vermin** » Fri May 31, 2002 7:15 am

Krag- That was pretty much the experience I had with Craytex.......it kinda faceted the piece because the wheel didn't form to the armor.
V