Drill press as Buffer

[drventure]

For the project I've been working on, I'm needing to polish a lot of little brass pieces.

I'd considered picking up a Harbor Frieght Bench Grinder/Polisher, but even at HF, they're 60$ and are single speed (3600 rpm or so).

I was out in the garage the other day and it occurred to me that I could just chuck the polishing wheel into my Drill press. It's horizontal instead of vertical and for large pieces, it'd be difficult to get into a good polishing position, but for small stuff, it seems to work just fine.

I did a little reading around on wood working sites, and apparently, this is a pretty common thing to do when you've got the occasional small polishing job.

There were a few comments about how the lateral load might wear your DP bearings faster, but most everyone indicated that that wouldn't be a problem for most polishing jobs as long as you don't press really hard, which you shouldn't do anyway generally.

Plus, my drill press is variable speed (620 to 3100 rpm) and the slower speeds work really well for polishing.

Just thought I'd pass it along.

I'd been doing all the polishing by hand with Brasso. It worked, but damn it's a LOT of elbow grease. Using a polishing wheel and a little polishing compound does the job tons faster and much nicer!

[Franco B]

Yup, I do a simiar thing for polishing my dustwashers.

Template route them, 3.2mm rad them and then mount them in the drill press onto a custom 9.5mm madrel I made and then 320>600>800>1200 Grit>Novus 3>Novus 2 polish at about 300 revs. Any faster I found overheats the plastic and burns it. 

For metals, as you know dventure, you can go much faster. I polish up to 5000rpm at work depending on the diameter (surface speed).

[Beretta]

probably smaller then you wanna go but rotary (dremel like) tools work good for this.. can get into tight spots but if it's a large piece can take a while.

[drventure]

Yeah, i've used my dremel for polishing stuff before, but like you said, for large pieces, it takes forever and I tend to get a weird uneven polish because the wheel is so small, I guess.

A big buffing wheel just seems to work better for larger pieces.

Heck, I used a car polisher once one a 3 foot diameter solid brass engraved antique tabletop. Took about 10 minutes total. I'd spent hours on it using brasso before I got that idea.

[Xiaou2]

 I have a Harbor Freight Radial Drill Press.  I use it a lot for polishing. 

 I also have a HF buffer... but I rarely use it.  The buffer isnt variable speed... and will burn thru
plastics too easily - instead of polishing them.  Its also too fast at times, and can Rip the parts right
out of your hands.   

 I prefer to dial in a speed thats more to my liking with my press.

 The press can be rotated to vertical... but I usually just use it horizontally.  I use the
large 8 to 10"? wheels.... and various grit polishing 'crayons'.

 Dremels are Horrible for polishing.   It will take a zillion pads to do even the smallest parts...
and wont do them very well to boot.   A true cloth buffer wheel will last years, and cost a
fraction of those stupid dremel pads.

 The only thing dremels are good for are Tiny things such as a small ring or other
jewelery.  Something small, detailed...something you dont want flying across the room
at mach 10.

 I dont think you really have to worry about ruining a drill press polishing... unless you are
doing something huge and using a lot of pressure - such as polishing car bumpers
'regularly'.

[Beretta]

i already said not great for large pieces but they do work good especially for tight spots.

are you using a polishing compound? are you running them at max speed?
if you're running them at max speeds and/or applying a lot of pressure you'll wear them out a lot faster.

i use mothers mag polish and it works on most metals that stuff is AWESOME..
although i dont think it works on brass/copper.

[Xiaou2]

 I used the Polish that came with them.

 Mothers Mag?  Your kidding right?  Thats not a real polish.  Thats for something light... like
a clearcoat shine.   Try buffing a steel pipe with that stuff.. and then compare that to Real
metal polish.

 The good stuff, is in a crayon like bar form.  You let the wheel eat into it.. then use it to
tear into the material.  Using very little pressure, you let the polish do the work.  The correct
polish will take 1/10th the time to polish... and the shine and smoothness attained will be
unmatched.

 Ive polished a rusty dull old screw to a perfect mirror chrome finish with a spiral buffer wheel and
steel bar polish.  And did it in seconds.  The dremel would have token 10 minutes to do that
same thing *unrusted*,  and it would not have been as shiny.  And would have cost me a
+$1.00 mini buffing wheel... that probably wont be good to use again.   

 Dremel pads often lose their internal ability to maintain a secure centerpoint - and cease to
function when you press on a material (dremel spins... but pad stays in place doing nothing!)

 They also are so small, that they are useless in seconds.  They get too dirty from removal,
cant be cleaned... so must be tossed out.

 I rarely ever use a dremel.  Only use when there is no other option possible.
They Suck.

[Xiaou2]

 
Here is slightly bad example.

 It was just a quickly test to show what 10 seconds worth of the right stuff can do:

 1) Aluminum Part.  Aluminum is difficult to get a mirror like finish on.  Could have
done even better with these if I had sanded first, and spent a little more time on them.

 2) Rusty screw.  Again... no sanding.  Just the spiral sewn buffing wheel, and compound
crayon - both from Harbor Freight.  Literally seconds to mirror finish.  This screw being
maybe +20 yrs old.

[Beretta]

um ok ya i dont try to do large projects with a dremel.. and no i dont try to polish something caked in rust..

if you found a way to take something 20 years rusty and turn it into mirror finish in 10 seconds more power to you.

btw mothers mag will polish aluminum like no ones business, it's actually the best type of metal to use it on, dont use it on anodized aluminum though.

perhaps the stuff you're using is highly abrasive (it would have to be to smooth out all the pits on the rusty stuff you're trying to polish) mothers mag is light yes thats why it's good for polishing something you actually wanna look at or handle it does'nt alter the curves or shape while polishing i've used mothers mag by hand on heavy tarnished items and they clean up quick.

i dont try to muscle my way through stuff, no wonder you hate rotary tools.

the op said he need to polish a lot of little brass pieces.. *DING* rotary tools are good for little pieces *projects*


EDIT: Just looked at your picture, not bad but thats no better then what mother mag could do and when you said rusty i was expecting something caked in rust.. thats hardly rusty