Anything wrong with a harbor freight buffer?

JoshRG said:
Dang I must be missing out. I've been using my harbor freight $40 buffer with the original buffs for over a year and thought it worked pretty good...:confused:
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Mine too, it's pretty fast, but I've found if I'm careful I don't burn anything.
 
JoshRG said:
Dang I must be missing out. I've been using my harbor freight $40 buffer with the original buffs for over a year and thought it worked pretty good...:confused:
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With the finish you're getting on your knives I'd say a harbor freight buffer is more than adequate!

After it was all said and done I put an ad on Craigslist saying if someone has a buffer/ grinder laying around collecting dust I may be interested in buying it.

Apparently there are lots of people with them laying around collecting dust. Bought one off of a guy close to me and he included some rouge.

What are you guys using?
I got pretty good results on some micarta with tripoli and a soft buff white.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
The HF buffers run at 3650 RPM. You really need something slower. Fast polishers can burn soft handle materials.
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Ha !!
I have a HF machine,
Its so gutless & bogs down quite slow, there is no chance to burn anything, & with just one wheel fitted !
 
JoshRG said:
Dang I must be missing out. I've been using my harbor freight $40 buffer with the original buffs for over a year and thought it worked pretty good...:confused:
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Mine flew apart the first time I turned it on :barf:
 
Lieblad said:
Ha !!
I have a HF machine,
Its so gutless & bogs down quite slow, there is no chance to burn anything, & with just one wheel fitted !
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If you are bogging down a 1 HP, 3600 RPM machine- you use a completely different method of buffing than I do!
I have the Grizzly, and use it quite a bit but I prefer a slower machine for most work.
 
I agree completely with Mr. DeShivs. I am on my third buffer and it is a 2 speed 1725rpm/3450 rpm and I will probably never use the faster speed unless I want to use much smaller buffing wheels. 1 HP is plenty for a buffer. Most of the finish work should be done by sanding before a buffer is used. I buff for about 30 seconds at the most for my finishes. I use green Chrome on the sewn buff and a white compound that is about 1300 to 1400 grit with a loose buffing wheel. Larry

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LARRYZ10 said:
I agree completely with Mr. DeShivs. I am on my third buffer and it is a 2 speed 1725rpm/3450 rpm and I will probably never use the faster speed unless I want to use much smaller buffing wheels. 1 HP is plenty for a buffer. Most of the finish work should be done by sanding before a buffer is used. I buff for about 30 seconds at the most for my finishes. I use green Chrome on the sewn buff and a white compound that is about 1300 to 1400 grit with a loose buffing wheel. Larry

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Thanks Larry,
Your recommendations are always helpful.
I think I read somewhere that green and white are used a lot, and someone mentioned pink but I'm not sure what material they were buffing.
I was kind of nervous buffing for the first time and I had a death grip on the knives.
I think I'll be OK though, the wheels are small. I took the guards off. I will probably buy new wheels and keep these in ziplock.
One is loose? and the other is sewn.

 
I have a harbor freight buffer that I got before I started making knives. I don't do much buffing of blades but I use it for handles. Now I know for a fact it will burn up, so my question is to the person that has a buffing wheel attached to their belt grinder. Do you find that the belt slips while buffing? If not that's a fantastic idea that I will replicate when my HF unit bites the dust.
 
Josh- go ahead and remove the rest of the guards. You don't need those guard halves sticking out like that.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Josh- go ahead and remove the rest of the guards. You don't need those guard halves sticking out like that.
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I did Bill, they seemed pointless as I don't plan on putting the grinder wheels back on for any reason. I saved them just in case though.
This thing is only 1/2 HP and I actually did bog it down at first, but I am just learning how to use it and it seems I don't need to push that hard.
 
I use a couple of 3450 RPM "Performax" buffers that the local big box (Menards) sells. IIRC, they'll listed as 3/4HP. They normally sell for about $80, but occasionally they go on sale for about $50 or $60 and they're pretty hard to beat for that price. Now I do admit they are a little fast for SOME things, but for most buffing I do, they're ok.

They're not be all/end all, but definitely an option.
 
The fast buffers can be effectively "slowed down" by using smaller buffs. A 4" buff will run at half the surface speed of an 8" one.
 
Which buffs do you guys usually prefer, 1 sewn and one loose or do you have several different ones?
 
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