Homemade Electric Burnisher ... What Do I Need?

[RoosterShooter]

I was thinking about purchasing a couple electric burnishers the other night and ran across a video on Youtube where a guy was using his homemade model.

He didn't tell how he made it, but just had pics.

I have several old bench grinders that have 1/2" arbors on them, and I have several burnishers that I purchased from someone along the way.

Pictured below is my burnisher, and , as stated above, my bench grinders have 1/2" arbors.

What else do I need?

[JAZZMAN]

Hi rooster, and i know this is not quite what you asked for, but have you thought abut getting one of these, Nigel says it fits on a half inch shaft and it looks pretty good, i have heard good things about these.

[RoosterShooter]

Hi rooster, and i know this is not quite what you asked for, but have you thought abut getting one of these, Nigel says it fits on a half inch shaft and it looks pretty good, i have heard good things about these.

You didn't send a picture with your post so I don't know what you are referring to. Thanks

[JLSleather]

If you already have a motor you want to use, and already have that burnisher, then all you need is a sleeve that fits the 1/2" shaft and the shaft of that toy. Maybe go an inch down each one. Maybe git all smanky fancy and put a set screw through each end. Any machine shop kin make one in half an hour.

Or, if a feller had a drill press, proper size reamers, and a small tap (maybe 1/4-20 or 5/16-18) you could make it yourself in that same half hour.

Personally, I must be gittin lazy, cuz if I had a drill press I'd probably just stick the burnisher in it and use it like that But, you did say you wanted to use the bench thing ....

Say, for instance, yer burnisher had a 3/8" shaft. Then a feller could take a piece of pipe with a hole LESS than 3/8". Drill one end out to just under 1/2", and then ream both ends (.376 and .501). Put a setscrew in each end as shown. Slip the 1/2" end on the motor and snug. If you wanna swap toys, you can slip it off the motor and leave it on the burnisher (wooden end). No slipping. No coming loose. Total investment, $30 at a shop / $2.38 if you do it yerself

Edited April 23, 2015 by JLSleather

[camano ridge]

Rooster, go to Lowes get a key-less drill press chuck. It will fit on your arbor and you can easily change burnishers or what ever you want to put in the chuck. You can eve get one for each side. Here is a picture of that type of set up Red Cent posted the other day on another thread.

Edited April 23, 2015 by camano ridge

[JAZZMAN]

You didn't send a picture with your post so I don't know what you are referring to. Thanks

Sorry about that Rooster, this is what i meant to post.

[veedub3]

My setup is like the one in the photo Camano posted. Lowes doesn't carry the drill chuck in my area, but I did find it at Home Depot.

Check here: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-1-2-in-20-Drill-Chuck-and-Key-A10KC03/203000648

You have a bench grinder, and you already have a burnisher, screw the chuck on (It fits 1/2 arbor), insert the burnisher in the chuck and you are off!

Karina

[RoosterShooter]

Do I need to slow the motor down at all, or are the higher RPMs ok?

[camano ridge]

Mine runs at 3500 rpm and does just fine. I have a friend who has one that turns at 1750 and it does a good job as well.

[JLSleather]

Do I need to slow the motor down at all, or are the higher RPMs ok?

Keep in mind that if you run one speed all the time, the larger end will create more friction and heat than the smaller speed - though the "speed" is the same. No long speech -- try it, you'll see what I mean.

[Nuttish]

Do I need to slow the motor down at all, or are the higher RPMs ok?

It helps me greatly to slow things down. My 1750 rpm 3/4 hp motor is running 2:1 to an arbor with those Italian felt burnishing wheels from Campbell Randall, so it's about 875 rpm.

Works well enough. This English bridle took maybe 3 minutes, though it's tiny. Sand straight, bevel, 400 grit belt to dress it up, saddle soap foam burnish, 400 grit, saddle soap foam burnish, 400 grit then 600 grit, super secret wax mixture.

[slipangle]

That's a nifty setup, Nuttish.

Any way you can slow down a standard grinder or buffer motor will help. It really doesn't require high RPMs like 3450 to burnish edges and I think that is a little too much.

I mount my home made burnisher, with steel shank, like the OP's, in my metal lathe head stock chuck. Or a drill press works too. But I try to save my drill press for drilling. The bearings in a drill press were not designed for lateral loads, even though burnishing puts very little sideways pressure on the quill.

Slip

It helps me greatly to slow things down. My 1750 rpm 3/4 hp motor is running 2:1 to an arbor with those Italian felt burnishing wheels from Campbell Randall, so it's about 875 rpm.

IMG_4710.png

Works well enough. This English bridle took maybe 3 minutes, though it's tiny. Sand straight, bevel, 400 grit belt to dress it up, saddle soap foam burnish, 400 grit, saddle soap foam burnish, 400 grit then 600 grit, super secret wax mixture.

IMG_4713.png

[Nuttish]

You only need a 1/2" Jacobs chuck. for any of these solutions. You can get them from Harbor Freight for $9.

If you want to go slower than 3400 RPM, you'll need another motor or to build a mechanical speed control like I did — it is not practical to change the speed of a capacitor start motor. I'm not even sure it's possible.

You can get good-enough benchtop lathes from Harbor Freight for $200. The speeds are perfect. http://www.harborfreight.com/5-speed-bench-top-wood-lathe-65345.html

There are variable speed fractional horsepower bench buffers with long arbors on Amazon for less than $200. I think they have 5/8" arbors, but you can also get 5/8" Jacobs chucks.

You can get cheapish VFDs for 3 phase grinders if that's what you have.