My first jewelry polisher

My first buffer
It is funny going down memory lane. I had forgotten many things but writing about them have brought some back to me. My first buffer was an old salvaged motor I had probably gotten at the flea market or garage sale. I had made a mounting shaft collar in metal shop in high school. It was made to slide over a shaft and had a nut and threads to put a grinding wheel or buffing wheel on a shaft that did not have threads and a nut to tighten. So I bought a 6 inch buffing wheel and slid it on this adapter and had my first polishing setup. I did not even own a bench and would hold this motor down to the floor with my knee pushing on top of it. Yes a horrible and humble start. Back then things progressed very quickly and there just was not time to put together the perfect little studio. I can remember that while I was buffing and holding this motor down with my knee that the motor would get hot and the buffing wheel would spin and throw the black buffing fuss in my face. I do not remember how long this motor was used but not very long. I also did not even know about the speed of a correct buffing motor. The motor I used was of course wrong as everything when I first did it was wrong. I always learned the wrong way first and then corrected. The correct motor speed for buffing is 3450 RPM and the wrong motor I used was 1725 rpm. This less rpm would not give me the shine I saw on jewelry and I wondered what I was doing wrong. There were and still are many approaches and opinions to which buffing compound to use first and which to get the shine with and also which buffing wheel to use for each step. So in the beginning with this wrong speed motor there were other compounds and wheels to figure out also. So a clear cut answer to get the ultimate shine took s few steps to figure out. It was not just the motor. Soon I would have a nice Paige buffer. and my equipment got very professional very quickly. So that was my first buffing motor in my humble beginnings.
Copyright @ 2010 James Saunders