Buffing a cue

[OneIron]

I have a Hightower lathe and I'm comfortable with the basics such as tip and ferrule replacement, Irish linen installation, etc. But I've never done any finishing. What's the best method for buffing a cue? I haven't purchased a buffing machine yet because I wanted to get the opinion of you guys. Also, what supplies will I need?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm a little bit anal and I want to be sure I'm doing things correctly.

 

[63Kcode]

It would help to know what finish you plan on using. Not all buff the same.

Larry

 

[Trent]

I use a cloth and buffing material around 750rpm then polishing compound at about 2000 rpms to shine it up.

but what do you use for finish?

 

[scdiveteam]

Hi,

I have found that buffing a cue vertically produces the best results for me.

The trick is to use a wheel speed of 1100 rpms with a 12" wheel works the best because you want to keep a cool buff going without producing too much heat.

Holding the cue on top of the rotating wheel spinning towards you is called cutting and holding the cue on the back side of the wheel is the polishing buff because the spinning wheel just whisks the cue and does not produce the heat like cutting.

A lot of buffing machine run at 1750 or 3600 rpm and are too fast. I guess with a smaller wheel they would be ok but you would have to calculate the wheel rpms.

Caswell has a very informative site and the people there were very helpful to me.

I use a variety of products but my last three step are Mensurna.

Rick Geschrey
Caswell 1100 rpm buffer use one side with product and the other side to buff clean and remove buffing residue

12" Donot Flannel Wheel

Don't forget to clean the wheel after every step

 

[Guerra Cues]

Awesome post. I have been looking at a lower rpm buffer at a lower price point. Thanks for posting this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[half fast bankr]

for later...

 

[OneIron]

I have a Hightower lathe and I'm comfortable with the basics such as tip and ferrule replacement, Irish linen installation, etc. But I've never done any finishing. What's the best method for buffing a cue? I haven't purchased a buffing machine yet because I wanted to get the opinion of you guys. Also, what supplies will I need?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm a little bit anal and I want to be sure I'm doing things correctly.

Appreciate everyone's help. As far as finishes, I plan on starting by buffing cues with existing finishes. Thought I would start with my Mezz playing cue which is in pretty good shape but I would just like to polish it up. I haven't graduated yet to actually applying a finish from scratch.