On 2/23/2011 2:29 PM, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:05:29 -0500, wrote:

Hey guys, maybe you can help me out a bit here..

Here's the situation. We do some work for the food industry, so almost
everything we weld for them we need to grind smooth and polish the welds
and surfaces. Now this can be on an OD, or ID, or flat area.. Sometimes
its as big as 5" ID, or as small as 2" ID.. At the moment, and this is a
rough estimate, but we'll spend about an hour welding something, and 3
hours polishing. We grind with stones and flap wheels or sandpaper discs
on a pneumatic right angle or straight grinder, then polish with finer
flaps and or scotch bright wheels.

I really have to explore different avenues because this polishing time
is killing us. So, I come to you to ask, how the hell can I make these
jobs profitable?

Thanks for any insight


Tom

I've done a fair bit of this. I prefer carbide burs in a die grinder
to ruff it out. Then I have an INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH buffer. It a 2 hp.
motor driving an arbor with 12 inch diameter buffing pads. There's a
huge assortment for different jobs. Put buffing compound on the wheel,
then LEAN into it with the part. For huge parts, put the buffing wheel
in the side grinder.

Probably nothing new here. It is certainly a practice makes perfect
thing. I built ten little SS apple labeling units a few years ago. The
last unit polishing took maybe 20% of the time that unit one did.

About 40 years ago I worked at a place that made large industrial
washing machines in stainless. After a die grinder smoothed the welds a
touch, 12-14" sewn buffing wheels driven by a flexible shaft with a big
dolly mounted motor were used to polish the surfaces. The polishing was
a dirty job.

Kevin Gallimore