Virginia: Umm… a buff rake? I’m not sure what kind of wheel you
mean. If it’s the flat, hard kind, I have no clue, but if it’s a
looser kind, we have a buff rake that works. You can make them
out of old nails hammered into a board to form a kind of brush…
Hope this helps. -Kieran
Virginia, Back when I was doing a lot of buffing, I had that
problem too - a quick solution was to grab a piece of broken
emery wheel (my dad used to manufacture scissors, and brought
home wheels that were too small, then we kids’d break 'em.) and
buff it. Messy in a way, but it fluffed the outer surface of the
wheel though and cleaned out all the gunk.
Loren Damewood
The way I have found to clean buffs is very basic…take a
large file, turn it on the narrow edge, turn on your buffing
machine and lean the narrow edge of the file against the buff.
It will literally, scrape the the old compound off. I do this
once a week if I need to or not. Makes clean up a lot easier.
Any way to get this gook out of my buffs?
G’day; yes, apply a piece of sharpedged flat sheet metal about
1/16" thick at right angles to the buff and push, Gunk will
scrape off onto the steel. Hold tight though! Hold it in heavy
pliers of a vicegrip.
/ \
/ /
/ /
/ /__| \ @John_Burgess2
(______)
At sunny Nelson NZ
I agree, it is much easier to finish the individual components
of a complex piece. I used to try to polish my rings on a buffer,
but then I had to spend a lot of time cleaning the compound out
from between the wires, or, worse, from between the twisted
multiple strands. I’ve never had any fancy cleaners, did it with
a toothbrush, and it was a royal pain. Now, I polish every piece
of wire before I start so that at least it is clean and bright,
then I tumble the pieces in steel shot for a while. I think my
total hands-on polishing time is about fifteen minutes, now, not
counting the time tumbling in the shot.
Loren Damewood
Years ago I met a jeweler who had a background as a professional
polisher in the trade. His work was flawlessly finished.
Finishing is an art. I was dragged into a discussion between one
of my studio partners and her 19 year old helper a few nights
ago. Rede was discouraged by his failure to properly finish some
of Beth’s sterling castings. Tomorrow Beth and I are going to
start Rede’s “finishing school” education. Years ago we used to
joke about the apprentice system- first to make your file, then
you file with it for a few years…
Richard D. Hamilton
A goldsmith on Martha’s Vineyard
Fabricated 14k, 18k, 22k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography,
and sailing whenever I can…
http://www.rick-hamilton.com
And on the subject of buffing … I seem to be getting a
build-up of black greasey gunk (obviously from old polishing
conpounds in the buff) that is coating my pieces when I polish.
I’m using the coarser stitched yellow muslin buffs. Any way to
get this gook out of my buffs?
“Rag” your buff with a rake. For handpiece wheels, I use an old
cheese grater. For larger wheels, use a commercial rake or make
one by pounding nails through a board so they stick out about
1/2"-3/4". Rag the buff by crossing perpendicular to the buff
while it’s running. On a big buffer you drag the rake across the
buff; on handpieces, rub the wheel across the grater nubbins.
This removes excess compounds and glazing. K.P.
I like … really like grey star tripolli. Years ago a friend of
mine told me that it was “self cleaning”. I didn’t listen long
enough to give the stuff a try. About a year ago I finally
bought some on the basis that it was water soluble. I’ve since
quit using both bobbing compound and tripoli. I don’t know
anything about “self cleaning”, it just seems to cut really
fast.
I also use white rouges (Zam, Fabuluster) and finish off with
red or yellow rouge.
About speed. Practice, practice practice. I have observed that
most inexperienced polishers spend more much time looking at the
work trying avoid removing more metal than they do actually
polishing. Don’t get me wrong, this is very important. I’m just
saying that wiith practice, one learns to intuit how fast the
metal is being polished.
Bruce D. Holmgrain
Maryland’s first JA Certified Senior Bench Jeweler
@Bruce_Holmgrain
http://www.goldwerx.nu
703-593-4652
Virginia, I use the hard yellow buffs also and I am sure I have
seen a tool for dressing buffs in supplier catalogs but I use the
tang of a large file to fluff them up and remove excess compound.
Steve Howard
If I may make further suggestion, for years I’ve used Moore’s
sanding discs which snap onto a mandrel which fits into your
handpiece (3/32" shaft.) Available at most ANY jewelery tool
supply house. Also are silicone rubberized abrasive disks. The
make one that not only removes marks but imparts a shine! Saves
lots of work - especially as a touch up and when doing simple
repairs such as soldering chains & J. rings.
Steve Klepinger
"rag your buff with a rake." For handpiece wheels I use an old cheese grater...
Good idea! I’ve been using an old file cleaner, and have also
had success with a metal slicker brush used on cats or dogs.
For wheels about 3 inches in diameter, a sturdy mat rake (used to
remove burrs and mats from dogs and cats) is also a useful
alternative…D.
Virginia: FWIW I used to notice considerable black build up on
jewelry I was buffing particularly if I was using white diamond
polishing compound. At first I assumed that I was using too much
compound on the wheel and started using it sparingly. The
buildup actually would get worse as I used less compound. So I
started recharging the wheel more often especially if I noticed a
buildup of compound. This cured the problem for me. Somethings
work just the opposite of what makes sense.
Kenneth Gastineau
In Beautiful Sunny Kentucky
@Kenneth_Gastineau1
http://www.ud.net/gastineau
Virginia there was a really good tip on this some time ago that
I occasionally use. Get some 80 grit sand paper and use that on
your buffs just like you’re trying to polish the paper. It
removes all the compound. Be sure to use a different piece of
sandpaper for each kind of polish to avoid contamination. I use
sandpaper strips made to fit a sanding machine, its the coarsest
I could find in the local hardware store…Dave
Kickass Websites for the Corporate World http://www.kickassdesign.com
Crystalguy Jewelry http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html
Recumbent Cyclist’s Advocacy Group
http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/bent/rcag.html
This isn't a repy but adding to the question; I'm doing multiples of a small figurative pendant (a face of a mythical figure....) and wonder if its possible to use a regular rock tumbler or my Gyroc tumbler to finish these with minimal hand polishing? I guess we're both talking mass finishing procedures here?
Yes,
Rock tumblers or your Gyroc will work just fine. About the only
significant factor in using rock tumblers for jewelry finishing
is that many of the smaller ones, both rotary and vibratory,
don’t have quite enough power to handle steel shot burnishing
media. Solution is to either use a smaller load, or to use
ceramic burinishing media, which doesn’t quite do as fine a job
at peening the surface, but for fine details, this may be
preferable. Plastic abraisive cones or similar media will work
just fine in these tumblers (your gyroc is ideal, in fact, for
these), on out to the ceramic burnishing media, and then the
corncob with rouge or other similar polishing media, will do just
fine. There is also a line of dry abrasive/polishing media, if I
recall, that does it all with diamond compound, that also works
nicely with metal. You may find that all you really need to do
is the initial cut down and deburr steps, maybe through the
ceramic media burnish, and from there go back to your buffing
wheel for the final touch. This gives you most of the course work
on automatic, while you retain control over the final perfect
finish at the wheel.
Hope this helps.
Peter Rowe