Well I needed a bench grinder/ buffer so I bought one from harbor freight. So far I'm surprised with it's performance. It does the job well for 75 bucks plus 20% off. But the only drawback is the rpms when buffing and polishing....this thing hauls ass..too fast imo. It runs constant at 3600 rpms. So my question is for you electricians..is there some way to lower the rpms with some sort of dimmer switch type attachment to run in between the wall and plug. Sorry for the stupid question..i don't understand home electricity and try to stay away from it so I won't hurt myself. Thanks for any helpful ideas in advance.
If you put a resistor inline, it will slow it down, but will also kill the torque, so it will stall easily and you won't be happy with it. It is wound to do 3600 rpm. I suggest buying a 1700 prm unit from Baldor. Its made to polish and won't disapoint you.
You can reduce part of your problem by going to the smallest diameter buffing wheel practical. (Machinists know it all as to do with surface feet per minute, which is based on wheel diameter and RPM) . Same reason you would run a big drill bit slower than a small one.
I use a tabletop version from Dremel to dial down the rpm's on my electric die grinder... It's great for polishing the ports on cylinder heads...
3600 rpm is pretty fast isnt it, i have looked at those for a while and had it on my wish list. i guess i need to think a little more about this.
I'm pretty happy overall with the grinder side of it..speed is perfect..i guess I'll just have to be super careful when buffing. I wouldn't want to decapitate myself with a piece of stainless fender trim! I'm only experienced with auto clearcoat buffing..we never exceed 1200 rpm on clearcoats.. I suppose the higher speed is better for stainless anyways..which is mainly what I'll be polishing. Thanks for the input guys!
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