Chestnut Buffing wheels, is this right?

[KimG]

I have the three wheels and the dome mops, but something seems amiss, Wheel A material is softer than Wheel B while Wheel C is the softest, I find I get a better gloss finish from wheel A (tripoli compound) than from the harder material used in Wheel B, in fact if I use wheel A followed by Wheel B, I find that I get a reduction in the quality of the finish, more often than not at least, and this is despite my trying to use a wide variety of pressures just to be sure it isn't me.

I am wondering if somehow my wheels got miss labeled, and in fact wheel B is actually the material normally labeled A.

The dome mops do seem similar though, which make me suspect that they are not in error.

What are yours like?

 

[Doug B]

Any chance of posting a picture of the 3 buffing wheels, Kim?

The shine does usually get progressively higher as you go up A to B to C.

Cheers

 

[KimG]

I'll post some pics later today.

 

[YewTube]

I don't have a set but there is a review by Mark Sanger which puts them in the order 1. Hardest (brown) 2. Mid (white) 3. Softest (wax). This would agree with my experience and logic of using them. I believe your suspicion that A and B are reversed is correct.

Bill

 

[CHJ]

Something definately not right there Kim, immediate first reaction would be that mop was mis-labeled but you say both large wheels and domes are the same which is hard to believe.


A. Should be a coarse Dense stiff Cotton (almost fine linen like) type fabric.
B. Should be slightly softer but still coarse cotton.
C. Should be a very soft white cotton.

On my originals.
A is a Mid tan colour
B is a off white/light tan
C is bright white.

 

[Terry Smart]

Hmm... I'd like to be able to say 'it could never happen' but experience has taught me (in pretty much every part of life, not just in business) to never say never.

It sounds like a possibility. The difference between Wheel A and Wheel B is very slight, so it is possible they were transposed at the labelling process. In fact, apart from the label it's pretty much impossible to tell them apart - but I can assure you all they are different.

My suggestion would be to clean them both up to remove the compounds on them. Easiest way is to hold a coarse (80 grit) abrasive against the spinning edge (held on a piece of wood, not direct) to wear away the top surface and expose fresh material. Then try them the other way round and see if this improves the situation. That will at least tell us what's going on...and if it is the case, contact me by pm and we'll sort something out to compensate for the wasted time, material and general frustration!

If this makes no difference we'll go back to the drawing board and look for another solution.

I look forward to seeing the results and resolving this for you.

 

[myturn]

Kim,

I had exactly the same thing with mine, which I only discovered after using them for a while.

As A and B are so similar in feel the best way to tell them apart is to spin them up on the lathe as it is much easier to feel the difference when they are rotating at operating speed.

Once swapped round I cleaned mine up with 80 grit as Terry has already suggested.

 

[KimG]

I will try that Terry, as the wheels are not as Chaz describes, they are the opposite, in other words, the heavier and stiffer fabric is on the B wheel while the A wheel is much less stiff and has a softer feel. I will swap them around as regards purpose and compounds and see how it goes. I appreciate the customer support, thanks!

I should add that the dome mops are very similar, Mop B seems much stiffer than Mop A, I will try them too.

Thanks to all for the replies too!

 

[CHJ]

Sounds as though someone, supplier or final assembly line has mixed up the mop specs, if so I suspect someone has some checking to do.

 

[Grahamshed]

Sounds like an embarrassing cook up but you have to admire firms that have reps on here and are prepared to stand behind their products and ensure customer satisfaction.

 

[tekno.mage]

Sounds like the labels on the wheels got mixed up during manufacture. With my own Chestnut Buffing System it was very obvious from new that wheel A was firmer & harder than wheel B - and that wheel C was very soft indeed. It is still obvious which wheel is the harder now my system is well used. The advice Terry has given about cleaning the wheels and trying the other way around should sort it out.

 

[boysie39]

Well done to Terry for picking it up so quickly , has his eyes on the ball does our Terry, =D> =D> .

 

[KimG]

Well I followed the instructions and cleaned the B wheel as free of the tripoli as I could get it, I didn't bother cleaning the A wheel as I was going to use the coarser tripoli on it, I set it up to work on an unpolished piece, starting with the Coarse Wheel B and Triploi, I got a nice smooth finish, on Wheel A and diamond white fetched up a decent shine and Wheel C laid on an even coat of wax, so indeed from this test it seems that the wheels were wrongly labeled as this is the first time I have got the expected results, prior to this I rarely used the Wheel B as it always seemed a backwards step.

I checked the dome mops and indeed they seem the same (A and B reversed) as far as the cloth stiffness and texture goes at any rate, they are a bit harder clean off though, I can send them to Chestnut for checking if you think that would be helpful Terry.

 

[CHJ]

If the mops ever get to the 'grotty' state you can wash them in a drop of normal washing machine liquid.
Rinse well and dry off, spinning in a hand drill will encorage the latter, care with direction you aim them unless you don't mind a shower.

I've only done this with a coarse and medium domed mops that I abused during trials but they came up as nearly new with no noticable loss of fabric stiffness.

 

[KimG]

Useful Tip, thanks Chas.

 

[Terry Smart]

Thanks for the kind words above folks, and I'm also grateful to a certain forum member (I won't name names to avoid their blushes) who was kind enough to point me in the direction of this thread. This is currently silly season for us with exhibitions and demos etc, so I'm all over the place -well, more than normal anyway- with varying degrees of internet connection.
We are looking into this, can I ask those that need a reply to bear with me a few days please until I have a few days at base so that I can answer properly?

Thanks.

 

[al3ph]

Yep same thing here, just purchased them last week, A/B are hard to tell apart, but when spinning B was stiffer, i.e. when put under pressure it deflected a lot less than A, bit annoying getting the brown compound off A was a bit futile but when I swapped them over it all started to work as expected.

I guess it'd help stop this, if the mops could be a bit different in coloration, less likely for the labelling to get confused.

 

[Chrisnw]

I've just looked at mine and think that mine have been labelled incorrectly too. I haven't had the chance to spin them up because of an epic workshop tidyup but the B wheel certainly seems stiffer than A. I feellike such a fool for not reallising this myself.

Thanks for the spot.

 

[paul johnson]

Hi Kim, I have got the 3 mop bealle system and got to say a good bit of kit, I notice your only a couple of miles up the road from me your more than welcome to call round to my workshop and have a look at mine.

Regards Paul.

 

[KimG]

Thanks Paul, I may well do that sometime!