Hey!
I’ve been finishing pieces with my foredom flexshaft but I think it’d be way faster/cleaner to finish with a bench top polisher that has a suction fan.
Anyone have recommendations for ones that aren’t terribly loud? I live in an apartment complex (corner, top floor unit thankfully) but don’t want my neighbors to hate me. Any recs? The smaller and quieter the better. I’ve been eyeing the dura bull ones thus far.
Thank you so much!!
Sofija
This is the smoothest and quietest one I know of.
If you look around, sometimes you can find a used one for a lot less money.
I don’t think you could wear it out - high quality machine.
https://www.amazon.com/26A-HANDLER-Lathe-110volts-shaft/dp/B01JJW9QKY
Patty
I’ll be curious to watch this thread. Noise in an apartment setting is an issue for me too, and I’m also interested in upping my polishing game.
I’m going to start a new thread about more general noise management, don’t want to risk hijacking this one. 
Hello SofijaO,
Noise is less of an issue than the cleanliness of your polishing. No kidding. When I began coughing up black phleghm, I knew it was time to spend the bucks for a FILTERED, power exhaust buffer. The good news is that when you buy a quality unit, the noise is modest and the air is SO much cleaner.
I have a Progress Tool Corp. buffer with built-in lights, powered exhaust through a filter, & double spindle Baldor motor. Does the work without bogging down and miracle of miracles, keeps the air clean. Of course that means you change the filter periodically and put it in your sweeps barrel…no sweat. It’s been a champ for about 3 decades now. The noise is minimal - certainly less than a vacuum sweeper. Just emits a hummmmm.
Here’s the other thing; you could bypass the buffer with a combination of 3M radial bristle discs and tumblers. Do consider buying Judy Hoch’s little book about mass finishing jewelry using tumblers. (Last I knew, Rio sells the book.) While you may not need the whole line-up of mechanical tumblers, it’s well worth reading about how to do it. She writes with common sense and personal experience. HOWEVER, I suspect that vibrating tumblers will create more noise than a quality buffer like I have. Rotary tumblers should be quieter. Just sayin’.
Judy in Kansas, where heat index is around 100F. Looking for a good rain tomorrow night - YAY!
Per Judy in Kansas, you can’t beat a Baldor polishing lathe. Add a hood that really sucks (air) through some kind of filter medium and you don’t have to worry about polishing power and problems with your lungs. I use a single spindle Baldor inside a hood that I built years ago. I exhaust through a 600 SCFM powered blower that has a coarse prefilter ahead of the blower to catch wheel duff. That goes into a cyclonic separator so that I can capture the bits of precious metal that I want to recycle. The rest of the air stream goes out the back of the house. Yes I lose some metal, but I accept that over not having a clean shop and lungs. I also wear a N95 mask and face shield when I polish. I am sure that I am a sight. It makes a lot of noise, but noise is not a problem for me. If it were, I woud add foam pads to the bottom of the lathe and isolation mounts to the blower. If is was still a problem I would add some kind of muffler to the 6" duct that goes outside. I make big pieces and need a big powerful polisher. If I made smaller pieces I would still have a similar setup only scaled down. Foredom makes some nice benchtop polishers and dust collectors. Take a look at Arbe too. Figure out what works, then how to muffle it. Per Judy in Kansas also read Judy Hoch’s book. I think that she said that it will be updated soon. Lots of good ways to use mass finishing. It still shakes the house, so add isolators if you need to, but you can do other work while your tumblers are working. Running a vibratory tumbler on a bench that is connected to the frame of your house is a way to get the whole place rocking and not in a good way. Again, figure out ways to add isolators. I have my three tumblers on a plastic roll around cart. It still produces air bourne noise, but it does not add structural borne noise from vibration since it is isolated from the frame of the house. Lots going on here. The solution is site specific and requires a lot of trial and error to solve it. .