Beall Buff finish

Re: Beall Buff finish

Doug Trembath

>Dennis, you can use the buffing system with any finish I'm aware of. Keep in mind that some finishes are harder or softer than others, or more susceptible to heat. You need just a little of the various abrasives and wax supplied with the kit, and you don't need to run the lathe at high speed. Start out slow with lacquer, after ensuring the finish is well cured. After gaining some experience, you'll know how far to push the buffing. I start out with the wheel spinning enough to provide some resistance to movement, and hold the piece to the wheel lightly. You'll see an immediate difference.

Experiment with some of the pieces you're not inordinately proud of first, to get your "buffing" legs.

Doug Trembath

Studio in the Woods

Re: Beall Buff finish

Joe Herrmann

>I use the system on both oil and lacquer with good results. Those are typically the only two finishes I used for lathe projects. I've read articles buy other turners who report good results with just about any finish--use whatever finish you like to use best and I don't think you'll go wrong.

Joe

BLO and the Beall??

Jennifer@Indy.USA

>Do I recall reading in the instructions of my Beall that it is not recommended to use Boiled Linseed Oil with the buffs? If so, does anybody know why? I'm assuming it may leave a residue on the wheels?

Jen

Re: BLO and the Beall??

theeviltwinn

>If I remember right the instructions say the system works better with harder finishes. BlO is softer than tung oil when dry.

Mike

Re: Beall Buff finish

Mike Schwing from Md.

>If you ask me, and I guess you kind of did, the buffs are intended for one thing - polishing. It does not matter what surface you are trying to polish, the buff will do the same thing. You can even try to polish rocks, if the grit is heavy enough, you'll eventually get some shiny rocks. I have used my buffs for everything from wood to plastics to metal.

As Doug pointed out, the finish you are polishing will react differently to the buffs based on heat, grit of compound, pressure, and durability of finish.

There is a lot of experimenting to do with your buffs before you'll really know what you're doing, but you'll be happy immediately. Heed Doug's advice about lathe speed, higher speeds will heat up your finishes, such as shellac and lacquer and melt them. I use the slowest speed I can reasonably work with.

Also, don't think that you need to resort to the tripoli compound for every buffing session. Some things will benefit from it - I find salad bowls treated with Watco do, but it'll rub the finish right off of a lacquered piece if you're not careful. Nor will every piece benefit from carnuba wax. I find it smudges glossy work. For glossy finishes, after I sand them to a high grit, I just "kiss" the surface with the white diamond wheel to get a perfect gloss.

Hope this helps.

Re: Beall Buff finish

John Lucas

>I find slow speed best for the Beal as well. I have melted a finish before. It's also much safer to prevent turnings from being pulled out of your hands. Sometimes I crank the speed up when I need a stiffer wheel to get into corners but most of the time the slow speed works well.

Re: BLO and the Beall??

Fog Tanner

>I have used the Beall system on BLO, mineral oil, and no finish at all. And this is on cedar which is soft to start with. It takes a little getting used to as far as speed and pressure, but all you are doing is polishing the surface and applying wax. I don't really find any residue on bare wood whn I do it right. On western cedar, I like to use Minwax Antique Finish for the effect. I make a number of small pieces that get this finish, and it seems to last. But, I also get good results from mineral oil, so I think a lot of it has to do with the wax.

Great system and well worth the money.