Yesterday I bought the Beal buffing system for lathe mounting and buffed a
few items that looked 'okay' but that I wanted to REALLY shine. After a
quick assembly and initial fooling around with the lint and charging the
wheels, I started experimenting with the first bowl.

It had been soaked in walnut oil, finished with oil-based urethane from
Woodcraft and then sanded up all the MM grits to 12,000. It still looked
more satiny than shiny to me.

Not anymore ... that box elder is so shiny now it glows in the dark!
Everyone who has handled it has commented on its silky feel. The guys want
to know how many coats of varnish it took to get it so smooth. So I tell
'em ... 15. They are very impressed.

Just wanted to chime in with a positive report. The system cost too much
money ... but it's worth it.

Bill

Bill writes:

It had been soaked in walnut oil, finished with oil-based urethane from
Woodcraft and then sanded up all the MM grits to 12,000. It still looked
more satiny than shiny to me.

Did you use all three steps of the Beall? The (red) tripoli seems to
undo fine-grit sanding for me. But then I tried it on bare wood with
very fine grain.



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On Sun, 29 May 2005 03:33:12 -0400, Bill wrote:

Yesterday I bought the Beal buffing system for lathe mounting and buffed a
few items that looked 'okay' but that I wanted to REALLY shine. After a
quick assembly and initial fooling around with the lint and charging the
wheels, I started experimenting with the first bowl.

It had been soaked in walnut oil, finished with oil-based urethane from
Woodcraft and then sanded up all the MM grits to 12,000. It still looked
more satiny than shiny to me.

Not anymore ... that box elder is so shiny now it glows in the dark!
Everyone who has handled it has commented on its silky feel. The guys want
to know how many coats of varnish it took to get it so smooth. So I tell
'em ... 15. They are very impressed.

15 coats?? You lyin' sob.... I LOVE IT..*g*



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Tue, 31 May 2005 11:18:09 +0000, Bruce Barnett wrote:


Did you use all three steps of the Beall? The (red) tripoli seems to
undo fine-grit sanding for me. But then I tried it on bare wood with
very fine grain.
Yes.

I cross-buffed, holding the workpiece such that the buff contacted
the wood at roughly 90 deg angles with each subsequent buffing (|--/\). I
kept at the tripoli until the surface was all even, even though it dulled
some parts that the MM had done an adequate job on. Then I repeated the
process with the white compound. I kept at this step until I had the shine
I wanted and then touched it with the carnauba buff (which I had loaded as
heavily as I could).

I was concerned that hitting the bowl with enough friction to melt the
wax would also be enough heat to ruin the varnish. Not so.

The reason I lied about how many coats was because I had already been
called a liar about how I had applied the varnish (by brush). Since the
guys weren't interested in the truth, I didn't see the sense of
wasting any more of it on them.

A couple of the guys are potential customers. They won't pay the shop rate
I want but might give me the same amount of money if they think it took
longer than it did. I'll accept $20 / hr so long as it's based on 48 hour
days. ;-)

I've since buffed a few pieces that had BLO on them and applied a first
coat of thinned (2:1) varnish as a sealer, fuzz hardener. After I've
sanded them to final smoothness, I plan to apply a few coats of varnish,
sand it smooth (perhaps 600-1000 grit) and then buff. If there are no
ripples and the finished surface is uniform, I think I might be in
business.

One key to getting a healthy shop rate seems to be efficiency.

Bill

In article ,
Bill wrote:

One key to getting a healthy shop rate seems to be efficiency.

Indeed. Set your price based on the first one - any improvement in the
process simply makes your effective hourly rate per piece go up. That's
your raise for better performance.

Bill writes:

One key to getting a healthy shop rate seems to be efficiency.

Thanks for the tip, Bill. I'll try the 90 degree trick next time.
I'll also try a penetrating oil before the first application.

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Hi Folks,

Indeed - shop efficiency is the key to making money at this and is rarely
written about.

George

"Ecnerwal" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Bill wrote:

One key to getting a healthy shop rate seems to be efficiency.

Indeed. Set your price based on the first one - any improvement in the
process simply makes your effective hourly rate per piece go up. That's
your raise for better performance.

I had to divorce the wife for that very subject! Didn't involve a buffing
system, though!*G*

Leif