Chippygeoff
Established Member
For a long time now I have been looking at an alternative way of polishing the things I make and yesterday I had quite a long chat with a guy called Peter Hemsley, who runs the Tool Post, that mainly caters for the lathe user. Peter is the importer of the Beall polishing system from America. I had seen a video on you tube a few times of this system and the guy that devised it and was very impressed. So I took the plunge and ordered it and it arrived this morning, which I thought was very good service.
What impressed me most was the quality of the shine. I used to do a lot of wood turning but when I moved home I did not have room for the lathe and everything that went with it and the scroll saw, and the scroll saw was my first love. The shine you get from using this system is deep and has a beautiful lustre to it; very similar to a well made piece of furniture you would see in a show room.
The finish is achieved by using 3 different compounds. Basically it is a grinder and after removing the guards and the grinding wheels I was able to fit the adapters that in turn take the cotton wheels. The wheels come with a threaded bolt fitted and these just screw into the ends of the adapters. Obviously the grinder will only take two wheels and initially I was thinking of using the pillar drill for the third wheel but there is no need to do this as changing a wheel takes less time than changing a blade on the Hegner.
The 3 different compounds used for the polishing come in bars, like bars of gold. In order of use they comprise of Tripoli, White Diamond and Carnauba wax. In practice you just touch the spinning wheel with the bars for just a second or to and there is enough on the wheel then to polish a few items before applying more. When you get to the end of the process using the wax the transformation is amazing and I am sure this new finish will be much appreciated by my customers.
You can get wheels of various sizes from 2 inch up to 12 inches and beyond but the wheels chosen depend on the speed of the grinder. In the video Mr Beall states that when using the 8 inch wheels you need a grinder that runs at round about 1725 rpm and in the states these are readily available but like a lot of things try getting them in the UK and you hit a problem. Most grinders available here run at 2800 rpm so instead of going for the 8 inch wheels, which was my initial intention I went for the 4 inch wheels and at the end of the day these are the perfect size for the size for the things I am churning out every day. I could have got a grinder for the 8 inch wheels but one I looked at was just 2 quid short of a grand.
What impressed me most was the quality of the shine. I used to do a lot of wood turning but when I moved home I did not have room for the lathe and everything that went with it and the scroll saw, and the scroll saw was my first love. The shine you get from using this system is deep and has a beautiful lustre to it; very similar to a well made piece of furniture you would see in a show room.
The finish is achieved by using 3 different compounds. Basically it is a grinder and after removing the guards and the grinding wheels I was able to fit the adapters that in turn take the cotton wheels. The wheels come with a threaded bolt fitted and these just screw into the ends of the adapters. Obviously the grinder will only take two wheels and initially I was thinking of using the pillar drill for the third wheel but there is no need to do this as changing a wheel takes less time than changing a blade on the Hegner.
The 3 different compounds used for the polishing come in bars, like bars of gold. In order of use they comprise of Tripoli, White Diamond and Carnauba wax. In practice you just touch the spinning wheel with the bars for just a second or to and there is enough on the wheel then to polish a few items before applying more. When you get to the end of the process using the wax the transformation is amazing and I am sure this new finish will be much appreciated by my customers.
You can get wheels of various sizes from 2 inch up to 12 inches and beyond but the wheels chosen depend on the speed of the grinder. In the video Mr Beall states that when using the 8 inch wheels you need a grinder that runs at round about 1725 rpm and in the states these are readily available but like a lot of things try getting them in the UK and you hit a problem. Most grinders available here run at 2800 rpm so instead of going for the 8 inch wheels, which was my initial intention I went for the 4 inch wheels and at the end of the day these are the perfect size for the size for the things I am churning out every day. I could have got a grinder for the 8 inch wheels but one I looked at was just 2 quid short of a grand.
