burnishing

[esantoro]

I've been working on 10 briefcases simultaneously, and, boy, am I doing a lot of burnishing. I've started using the plastic wheel from Tandy on my power drill. It's cutting down quite a bit of time, but I'm not wild about the results. Is there another type of burnishing wheel I can use with my drill?

Also, is it possible to purchase a drill adapter for winding bobbins? Can I simply go through Tippmann, or are there other suppliers?

Thanks,

Ed

[Peter Ellis]

Weaver has two slickers designed to chuck into your drill, same design in wood or plastic. They're both tapered, 7 inches long, three different size grooves for edges and then a tapered tip that will fit into small spaces. The wood one is about $25, plastic about $17.

[Roger]

i have the plastic one from weaver chucked up in a small bench top drill press. it is very versitle.

i am going to purchase the wooden version some time soon and see if it performs any better than the plastic one

[esantoro]

Weaver has two slickers designed to chuck into your drill, same design in wood or plastic. They're both tapered, 7 inches long, three different size grooves for edges and then a tapered tip that will fit into small spaces. The wood one is about $25, plastic about $17.

Thanks, Peter. This sounds perfect.

Does anyone know of a link to a picture of these? Does the wood burnisher give better results?

Ed

[barra]

I just use a metal rod that has had coarse canvas tightly wrapped around it and is tightly held in place with cable ties. I then just rub a bit of bees wax on it, chuck it in the drill and burnish away. Works fine. Alternatively I have an old wooden sewing thread kreel that has a bolt thru it and this goes into the drill. The shape of the kreel means that I can burnish any width piece as I just manipulate it around the wide part of the kreel. I use a drill to wind bobbins for my stitcher. I have just made a few modification and will post pics soon. My other machine has a bobbin winder attached.

Barra

Edited July 8, 2007 by barra

[bruce johnson]

Ed,

My experiences. I have used the wooden and plastic disks from Tandy in a drill - works OK, but only one size groove. I have used both the plastic and wooden spindles from Weavers on my drill press. The plastic melts, and the wooden ones do alright until the spindle breaks off where you chuck it. I have broken three. The problem is the spindle is just a turned down part of the unit, turned down until it is "spindly" - bad joke. It is wooden and so the jaws of the chuck eventually bite out chips, and it can get out of true as well. They each lasted me about 6-8 months. That is pretty good for the amount of use, but they could be better. Weavers seem to be less than enthusiastic about customer feedback and suggestions for product improvement on this item.

Last year I had one made up by Norm Lynds. I think Norm is a member of this group. It has a metal spindle going into the wood, is true as a rule, and he put several sizes of grooves in it at my suggestion. I was thinking two shorter ones, but Norm got all the grooves on one longer one. I think mine have 9 or 10 grooves. I do everything from 2 oz wallet pockets to double 15 oz saddle skirts on it. I like it enough that I now have two (one for plain edges, one for dyed edges). I can't see them wearing out.

When I last talked to Norm, he was in the middle of packing up his shop and moving to another house. He figured he might be back up by mid to late summer. He makes some other handy tools - a nice modeler, sets of embossers, seat smasher/bouncer, etc.

I will post pics tomorrow of my last unbroken Weaver one and the ones from Norm.

Bruce Johnson

[Don101]

as you can see i have the wooden and nylon disk burnishers from tandy but as stated before they only are one size, i also have home made ones made from oak dowels (in the drill chuck) and oak spindal from an ornate tabel leg just cut off and modified to do the job

I also have for geting in hard places hand burnishers the plastick one from tandy and again hand made turned out in a lathe and a tabel leg spindel,

the home made ones work better for me than the shop bought ones as you have more variation, Don

[bruce johnson]

Attached is the photo of the slickers from Weaver and the one I had made by Norm Lynds. The advantage of the Weaver one is the tip is good for doing inside slots or very small inside curves. The one from Norm is sturdier and has a better range of grooves.

The Weaver originally came with just the 3 grooves, I added the upper wider groove with a rat-tail file while it was spinning.

Bruce Johnson

[Don101]

i like the one with the small spindal point thats a nice idea, ill have to make one like that and try it out, good idea Don

[esantoro]

Ed,

My experiences. I have used the wooden and plastic disks from Tandy in a drill - works OK, but only one size groove. I have used both the plastic and wooden spindles from Weavers on my drill press. The plastic melts, and the wooden ones do alright until the spindle breaks off where you chuck it. I have broken three. The problem is the spindle is just a turned down part of the unit, turned down until it is "spindly" - bad joke. It is wooden and so the jaws of the chuck eventually bite out chips, and it can get out of true as well. They each lasted me about 6-8 months. That is pretty good for the amount of use, but they could be better. Weavers seem to be less than enthusiastic about customer feedback and suggestions for product improvement on this item.

Last year I had one made up by Norm Lynds. I think Norm is a member of this group. It has a metal spindle going into the wood, is true as a rule, and he put several sizes of grooves in it at my suggestion. I was thinking two shorter ones, but Norm got all the grooves on one longer one. I think mine have 9 or 10 grooves. I do everything from 2 oz wallet pockets to double 15 oz saddle skirts on it. I like it enough that I now have two (one for plain edges, one for dyed edges). I can't see them wearing out.

When I last talked to Norm, he was in the middle of packing up his shop and moving to another house. He figured he might be back up by mid to late summer. He makes some other handy tools - a nice modeler, sets of embossers, seat smasher/bouncer, etc.

I will post pics tomorrow of my last unbroken Weaver one and the ones from Norm.

Bruce Johnson

I also like the burnisher from Weaver that has the tip, but I'm not crazy about chucking up the wood part and having the whole thing break after a short while. If Norm will make more of his burnishers, I'd like to buy one from him.

[Billsotx]

Norm also makes a mini version that chucks into a Dremel; that is only 1 groove but it will work well in a varible speed Dremel. I have the same drill model that Bruce posted a photo of and it works fine. All of Norm's tools are top notch.

[carpfisher]

The pictures were very helpful. I am now on the prowl for a nice chunk of hardwood, ie. maple, oak, hickory (Broken baseball bat! :biggrin: ). After lathing the grooves, I am thinking that boring the end, insert a metal arbor and then epoxying it in place. That will solve the wood in a chuck problem.

Great Thread!

Duh! just re-looked at the pic.'s and noted that one has a metal base.

Edited July 24, 2007 by carpfisher