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I have 3 handwheels that I need to restore for my Enterprise band saw. I figured I would put together a quick pictorial showing the steps I used to make them beautiful again.

 

Original condition:

 

As you can see in the pic above they are in pretty rough shape .. rusted, pitted, and any original old paint that is left is flaking off.

 

First thing I do is use a handheld wire brush and remove as much of the dirt and paint as I can. Next I use a wire wheel mounted on a buffer/grinder and remove the rest of the crud and rust, taking it down to bare metal.

 

 

After hitting it with the wire wheel it's looking pretty good.

 

 

If the rust was only on the surface then you can skip this next step, but the rust on these was pretty heavy which caused some minor pitting. I mounted the wheel in my metal lathe and used various grits of emery cloth and sand paper to clean them up. The wheel in the upper right hand corner of the pic above is very pitted and I will need to use a file to get rid of most of the pits.

 

If you don't have a lathe you can build a mandrel and mount it in a drill press or just mount a wooden dowel in a vice, slip the wheel over the dowel and turn it by hand, I've done it that way many times and it works great.

 

Next I use a buffing wheel and load the spiral sewn wheel with tripoli compound and the loose cotton wheel with white diamond compound.

 

Then start polishing.

 

 

Purdy ....

 

 

Next give the whole wheel a wipe down with some denatured alcohol or mineral spirits to get rid off any wax residue that may be present so the paint will stick to the bare metal.

 

 

Use some masking tape to cover the polished areas.

 

And apply the paint.

 

Good as new!

 

One down, two more to go.

Looking at the time stamps on the pics it took me an hour and a half from start to finish, not including time spent waiting for the paint to dry.

Hope this helps ... Good luck,

Edited November 7, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Without knowing how you restored the wheels, I basically followed the same path. No lathe so I used the dowel to sand the wheel. Then lots of polish and I used lacquer thinner to clean the parts.

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Excellent step by step pictures Shane. Thanks. Waiting for paint to dry is an occupational hazard.

 

 

 

Bob Kloes
www.bobkloes.com

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Not that your old buffer wasn't any good, but that one looks a lot better. I think you need power to get things done, and good to see you have ungraded. Now if you had 3 or 4 you would be in buffer heaven

 

The lathe is the way to go. Most of the time I don't even go to the buffer after the  lathe. Got to watch your hands when using  the lathe boys.

 

 

jack

 

 

English machines

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Thanks guys.

 

Jack I just put that buffer together yesterday. It's a POS Harbor Freight pneumatic sanding drum that my dad left in my shop a couple of years ago. It sucked as a sander but works out nice as a buffer.

 

I still have the little buffer that I have been using for years set up. It works great for the smaller stuff like nuts and bolts.

 

The big one has a much stronger motor and spins at twice the speed. The parts get so hot I had to get my welding gloves out to hold them. I can get the same results out of either buffer but he bigger one definitely gets it done a lot quicker.

 

 

Shane

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Yes the large wheels get hot. I got a big cast saw near the POS 1.5 hp buffer I riged up and just set things on there to pull the heat out of the part . Then work the next piece. Made mine with a 1750RPM and am running 8" to 10" wheels. I have been on the hunt for a guitar buffer and if I find one it will do the best work as they have a long shaft and run 1150 rpm.

 

 

Have you tried the open wheels? They run a lot cooler but don't charge as well. They do cut fast but are not as nice for the final finish.

 

 

 

Tell me what do you use to clean the wheel? I have used an old hack saw blade, but would be interested in what you do/use.

 

 

jack

 

English machines

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

That looks like a sweet buffer Jack, hope you find one.

 

I have my radial ram DP sitting in the same room as the buffer and do the same thing as you, use the cast iron base as a heat sink when the parts get to hot, or just walk back to the bathroom and run it under the cold water.

 

 

To clean the wheels I use a piece of an old 6 tpi band saw blade. It's mounted to the side of a wood block with just the tips of the teeth showing past the edge of the wood. Turn on the buffer and hold it to the wheels, it will clean the old compound off in a hurry.

 

Shane

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

That sounds like it would clean them quick. I find brass and bronze clogs the wheels very fast.

 

I know you like the white compound(cuts fast),but do you use any others? And change the wheels or use the same wheel with other compounds?

 

 

jack

 

 

English machines

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

I pretty much use 3 different compounds the most. White diamond, brown Tripoli and black emery.

I have a different wheel that I use for each compound.

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Thanks for the tutorial Shane, very nice indeed. I have cleaned up old steel kind of like you did, not as professionally as you but just a good going over with a brush and wheel, but it never occurred to me to break out the file and actually file away the pits! What a great idea. I just accepted the pitting as, oh well, it's there, gotta deal with it. Thanks for the great photo montage on this.

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Now that is an excellent tutorial. Thanks Shane on giving us a peek and how it should be done.

 

Gives me a couple of ideas now.

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Shane,

 

Excellent write up...…

Obviously there are several ways to skin this cat, but I am going to offer a few options ........

I sometimes use electrolysis for the rust removal if I have the time or otherwise use the wire wheel process.

In lieu of using files anymore for deeper pits, etc. as they tend fill up very quickly even if you pre-fill the "file teeth with chaulk" it seems as one needs to be constantly cleaning them with a file card as needed on such a project as a spinning handwheel placed in my metal lathe, as a substitute .......I have gone to what is called by some a bandfiler which is a small belt sander that runs much much cooler than a file and is several times faster. I use mine for everything from contouring wood, removing casting lines in cast iron on restoring old machinery, profiling different shapes of different materials, and the list goes on ...........these are very, handy to have for a lot of uses........... here is mine when it was new:

 

 

The use of a random orbital sander after this process is also a good idea such as Shane is using I suppose after the hand filing .......the random orbital obviously gives a person a lot of latitude on the use of different grits of sandpaper.

 

As for buffing compounds I used white tripoli for probably 20 years and still keep it on stock in my shop for some uses, but if I want a comb your hair in the shine brilliance...... the last 20 or so years I have switched to a product made by Formax called Black Magic. The reason I switched was a gentleman who is an abrasives and buffing products wholesaler got me to try it and I have done several side by side comparrision tests and prefer the Black Magic. I had used it for several years and compared it to 7-8 others and I have not yet found anything better. I even called Formax and talked to them as they advertise it for brass, aluminum, copper, tin plate and other alloys and I mentioned me using it on steel and the tech person says if he is trying to get a brilliant finish even on steel he recommended it over anything they had. This has been about 5 years or so since I called, but I will for now stay with the Black Magic. It is very dirty to use and it takes some getting used to on how to buff with it as you need to keep the wheel loaded fairly frequently, but it is the bees knees as far as I am concerned. Here is a link to the page it is on:

 

http://www.formaxmfg.com/chrome-rouge-buffing-wheel-bar-compounds

 

Jack, I use the edge of an old coarse file to clean my wheels, but I do not mix compounds on the same wheel. I have had as many as 6 buffing wheels set up for various tasks. Anyway the proper tool for cleaning buffing wheels is called a wheel rake such that is found there also.

 

I also really like using the 3M radial brushes that are impregnated with several options of abrasives like these.

 

Here is one on one of my first generation Delta Triple Duty grinders:

 

 

I have also found that the 3M Scotchbrite deburring wheels are a great tool for smoothing up steel especially the small knobs etc that are found on handwheels and a multitude of other restoration chores. Here are some of those in different forms of machine application. I like the large wheels and have 3 different grits and widths set up on another first generation Delta Triple Duty grinders and the third wheel on another. 

 

 

 

 

In closing there are many many directions and methods of taking rusty metal to a brilliant finish and to each his/her own, but I thought that I would throw a few more options out.

 

 

Take care ~ Dan

 

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Simply excellent thread. I picked up an old peice of equipment Friday with 3 handwheels on it. All this information will be very useful. Thanks guys!

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

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Edited November 7, 20187 yr by Larry Buskirk

Lot of great information & tips. Thanks.

This post was moved because the information contained applies to both woodworking, and metalworking machines.