DIY bench burnisher?

[Chef niloc]

Hii

i want to make a bench burnisher like the cobra MP one out of a bench buffer. I found a sight ( thanks to a search here) that has the grooved wooden attachment, but  does anyone know what the  correct attachment ( and possibly where to get ) to fit the sanding drums to the other side? Looks like one would need a rubber drum or contact wheel of some sorts with a half-inch arbor hole? But I could be completely wrong

 

[TomE]

McMaster-Carr has sanding drums and sleeves.  https://www.mcmaster.com/products/sanding-drums/  One thing I like about the Cobra burnisher is the ability to adjust the speed.  Need to control friction-heat to get a good result. The right amount of water and saddle soap on the edge is important, and I run the burnisher at about half speed.  I usually finish the edge by hand with canvas and a burnishing gum or solution.  Also, the wooden burnisher on the MP has that wide flat section that I use often for multiple layers of leather straps.

Edited July 19, 2024 by TomE

[Chef niloc]

Thanks Tom didn’t think about the variable speed aspect as I currently is a drill press which has variable speed the extra buffer I have laying around doesn’t. By the time you buy the attachments looks the the cobra is running about $300 or so more to have a dedicated machine certainly works considering

[CdK]

@Chef niloc This is what I did, started out with a low speed grinder from Amazon, $80 & sanding drum kit from Harbor Freight, $18. I turned a screw on arbor for the RH thread and pressed this into a block of cherry. I then turned the wood to add the grooves. I rotated the grinder body 180* so the rotation is away from me.

Edited July 23, 2024 by CdK

[Tigweldor]

Hi,

What shaft size are these Harbour Freight sanding drums made for ?

Thanks in advance

Hans

[Tigweldor]

Well, answered my own question at home - says it right on the Motor : 1/2 inch - couldn´t see that on my phone display - the monitor of my home computer has better image / more pixels.

[kgg]

Just to add another twist to the conversion.

If hardness of the burnish wheel is an important factor what would the drawback or pro's to using a metal burnishing wheel with machines grooves like the wooden ones??? Steel, Aluminum, Brass

kgg

[Tigweldor]

I guess, that hardness is not all that important - unless it comes to different kinds of wood.

Glass is harder than steel - else you couldn´t clean your Ceran stove top with steel wool and methyl alcohol without leaving a single scratch.

On the other hand, I haven´t seen any glass burnishing wheels being available commercially - some people in this here forum suggest spark plugs - the corpus of them is ceramic - I don´t know if that is harder than glass - gotta check into that.

Since I don´t like to fart around but rather get right into it - I have ordered one of these brass burnishers from Chinesistan - as well as some hand burnishers made from some dark indescript Asian hardwood - didn´t cost much - I will use/try these in my flexible shaft grinder.

I ordered a round chunk of maple as well - let my bud do some work in return for all the welding I´ve done for him free of charge. They do say that one hand is to wash another - so far he seems to be a "no armed bandit" in that game (grin)

Any method sure beats having to burnish the edges of a belt by hand with a canvas rag with the old "jerk off motion" - not at the price I am charging for my merchandise.

As the Chinese have stashes for their merchandise all over Europe, I expect quick delivery - the one thing a body sure as heck can not do, is knock their prices.

And I will say one thing that is sure as horse dung : if they completely close shop and play a hard game in this trade tariff war - the rest of the world is f....ed.

You wouldn ´t be able to buy a single ball bearing or a seal - all has been outsourced mainly to Chinesistan and the few remaining US Timken plants would have to deliver to the army and not to civilians any more. Just take a look at say Timken bearings for your Harley swingarm - on the package it says - made in the USA - on the bearing it says made in China or made in India - and they both are part of the BRIC (= Brazil, Russia, India, China)

But : since talking politics on a forum is generally bad news - so I´ll quit right now and hope we all get along peacefully.

 

Greetings

Hans

 

 

Edited Friday at 07:06 PM by Tigweldor

[Dwight]

21 hours ago, Tigweldor said:

I guess, that hardness is not all that important - unless it comes to different kinds of wood.

 

My setup is not as "pretty" as is many others . . . but it does the job.

Took a piece of oak I had laying around . . . made sure that even though the grain is big . . . it was solid . . . no "splintery" trash on it.

Semi rounded it out on my disc sander

Drilled a hole in it to match the shaft of my little rusty old 1450 rpm motor . . . then slotted that hole so I could put a clamp on it . . . hold it tight to the shaft.

Set up a block of wood on which to use my chisels . . . worked it down nice and straight and round.

Then used the chisels to cut the grooves in it . . . gave it a good dose of solid bees wax . . . grabbed a rag and polished the wax.

The two pieces of leather were just a scrap I had in the shop . . . used to test the stitches on my sewing machine.

Hit the edge with a edger . . . put it in the groove closest to the motor . . . as it is the one I use for belts . . . after I dampened the edge.

I didn't get fancy . . . wanted to show the basic burnishing  . . . would look really nice if I had put some wax on it . . . 

The ruler is one of them kind that don't measure in inches . . . (lol)

This has been my tool for something on to 5 years . . . had to scrap the other one . . . start switch went out on the motor . . . and shaft was different size . . . had to make a new one.

May God bless,

Dwight

 

[dikman]

There's a chap called Sam Andrews (has holster-making videos on youtube) who has an aluminium burnisher on a motor. I see no reason that brass shouldn't work too. I made mine out of hardwood, mainly because I could drill the hole for the shaft slightly undersize and then force it onto the grinder shaft and cut the thread at the same time.