[stickman]

hello, good folks of the magical wood carving boards.

I have two grinding machines and I want to make a buffing /stroping machine out of one of them and would like to pick your brains.

ones a GE 1/4 hr 1725 rpm 4'' wheel belt driven (got it for free from work )

the other one is a 3/4 hr 3450 rpm 6'' wheel (got it at big lots cheap)
I like to make a power strop out of one of them
mabe with a home made cardboard wheel or something similar

which one do you think would work better? and how would I go about getting started

I know nothing about using or making one so please excuse my ignorance and if you need any more info just ask.

here are some photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hillpicts/Carving02

[cats pa]

Ooooh, the belt drive one looks way cool!

I would use it because 1) the slower speed and slower surface speed of the smaller wheel means you can lean into it more if needed without building up heat at the edge of your blade, and 2) it will be more forgiving of any irregularities in your homemade wheel.

If it was me, I'd use 3/4" MDF for the wheel, it's basically cardboard fibers highly compressed and would save you a bunch of glue-up plus no glue lines (which would be harder than the cardboard itself) in your finished wheel. I'd cut it to rough shape, mount it on your arbor, then spin it up and shape it with a rasp, then a bastard file, then sandpaper. Just don't get it wet or it will come apart.

I have some scrap MDF in my shop, and I'd be willing to rough out a blank for you if you don't have the tools or time, in return for seeing the finished product. Who knows, I just might build one for myself.

Best of luck to you,

Parker

[stickman]

Parker, thanks for the response.

not exactly sure what MFD is ? I thought is was some kind of particle board
and though it was used to build shelves and such.

If it the stuff I am thinking of I'm not getting a good idea how it would work (wouldn't it be to hard ?)again excuse my ignorance this is all new to me.


I did a search on the message board on this subject and found a thread that someone posted a link to smokey mountian.and there article on sharpening

very good read!

they use a heavy cloth, multi-layered cloth wheel

and they explain that because of the heavy cloth multi-layers helps in dissipating the heat
they also indicate that this heavy multi-layered wheel is mounted on a 3450 rpm bench grinder

it is supposed to be easy to use and doesnt round the blade or over heat the blade like some other materials

sound to good to be true but just what I need!

I wonder what kind of cloth they use .They refer to it as a heavy cloth wheel

would old denim jeans work ?

and would I just cut out a circle and put multiple layers on the arbor and pinch it together with some washers ?or should I glue the layers together ?

any advice would be appreciated!

well got to go help my buddy dig up his septic tank and it not going to be much fun in the freezing rain.I much rather build a power stropper!

[susieq]

Hi Stickman,
The belt driven machine would also allow you to change direction of the turning wheel without working from the back of the machine or re wireing the machine.....remember that the wheel should be turning away from you at the top of the wheel. You don't want that thing to grab your tool and throw it back at you at high speed...ugly, very ugly, not to mention the big gouge it will put in your wheel. I think you can just put the belt into a figure 8 and that should get the wheel going opposite the motor shaft.

[Herb]

Hi Stickman,

The belt drive machine looks like a tool post grinder for a metal lathe. It should do the job ok.

MDF is medium density fiberboard. It's a fine particle fiberboard. I have not tried it but hear it does a good job. That is my next project.

Here is a site http://www.texasknife.com/store/s-pa...tore.htm~smain that has some good supplies. This page is buffing wheels. Look at the sisal wheel. They also have a good supply of buffing compound.

I hope the link works. This doesn't work like other forums that I read.

Herb

[stickman]

Hi Stickman,

Originally Posted by susieq

The belt driven machine would also allow you to change direction of the turning wheel without working from the back of the machine or re wireing the machine.

nice... great idea! thanks

Herb, I think thats exactly what it was.

thats what I thought it was (MDF) I didn't realize it would be a good material to use. still sounds a little scary.

your link worked fine and I booked marked it to check it out at length .thanks

[cats pa]

Michael, Herb is exactly right about MDF. It's a product they make out of what would otherwise be waste wood fibers. Compared to particleboard, the fibers are much finer and more compressed, more like Masonite, only thicker. Most lumberyards offer it in a variety of sizes, from door casing strips to 4x8 sheets. It takes paint smoothly, in fact you can commonly find it pre-primed for trim applications. It wouldn't be my first choice for shelving, because it's not stiff enough over a 2'-3' span to hold, say, a row of books.

Buffing/stropping wheels are available from several sources, made from different materials. In my hillbilly opinion, the materials are not as important as how soft or hard the wheel is. The ones I have are, from softest to hardest: loose muslin, hardly stitched at all, very soft - stitched muslin, firmer but soft at the edge - hard felt, pretty firm - maple wheel w/leather face, firmer than felt - and now, because you inspired me, MDF, which is pretty darn stiff. I run them on a 3500 rpm motor (turning toward me, unfortunately) so I use a light touch and am very careful.

The hardness of your wheel depends on what you want to do with it, and to some extent, how much pressure you need to use. A soft wheel will "wrap" or curve itself around the workpiece, whick makes it a good choice for smoothing round or convex shapes, but not so good for a fine edge. A harder wheel will not flex to accomodate a curve, but it will hone a very fine edge on a knife or chisel that already has good geometry.

I think you could make cloth wheels out of old jeans, if you had a way to sew through a 3/4" stack. The ones I've seen have several layers and are stitched in a kind of spiral pattern.

Let me know the arbor size and outside diameter, and I'll make you a couple MDF wheels, one to use with compound and one without. That way you can experiment and see what you like.

Parker

[wchips]

Hi
The carving club i belong to has a power strope that ia home made.It has a old fan motor about 1/4 hp a 2'' pully on the motor anda 8 or9'' pully on the shaft. It turns real slow (less than 1000rpm) on one end it has a wood wheel about 1 1/2'' thick 7'' diam, with fine emery cloth glued on it. on the other end it has another wood wheel with stropping compound on it ( I think mdf would be better) In the center it has a buffing wheel farley hard and several smaller wheels out of hardboard shaped to a v on the outer edge coated with stroping compound and another hardboard wheel with a round ahapt to strope the inside of gouges. It works real well.I am collecting parts to build one for myself
Have a nice day And happy holidays to all of you Lee

[AlArchie]

Stickman, checked you photos and the first thing I noticed was that your beer was flat...no head or bubbles att all.

Seriously, if you are going to use the belt drive one, I wouldn't try to drive that by twisting the belt into a figure 8.......that gives a lot of wear on the belt sides and will draw a lot of torque drom that already weak 1/4 horse motor. If you that is a capacitor start motor, you can easily reverse rotation by reversing the capacitor leads. There should be a removable plate somewhere near where the power cord enters the housing that will give you access to the wire terminals. Reversing the power cord leads will NOT change the rotation on a AC motor.....make sure you change the capacitor leads.

I'd also suggest you remove that metal guard around the wheel. It'll just get in the way. And you really DON"T have to reverse the rotation anyway.....I know several professional carvers who have the standard rotation and I have one of mine turning that way. that's the one with the cloth buff. On the one with the leather wheel for stropping I have reversed the rotation. both work equally well.

Just went back and looked at those photos again......if the old GE is a 1725 RPM motor, the way the grinder is set up with the drive pulley twice the size of the driven, the wheel RPM will still be 3450 RPM. You'll need to change those pulleys to get the wheel RPM down to a lower speed.

Al

[stickman]

Parker, I would really appreciate a couple Mdf wheels are sure its not to much trouble ?