My one person shop is small and tight. I don't lacquer much, and for a long time got away with using automotive polish and a hand held buffer to buff out lacquered instruments. But finally the mess of the spattering polish got to me (not to mention the amount of time it takes to do things that way) and I broke down and got a real buffer. Not a real buffer as in a Baldor pedestal buffer, but a shop built buffer made from a buffing head from Stewart MacDonald. The buffer mounts on my table saw and is powered by the saw's motor. So the most expensive part of a shop built buffer (the motor) was not something that had to be bought for this machine. Since I rarely buff and saw at the same time, it works out pretty well. The buffer can be hung up out of the way when not in use, too. A description of the buffer follows.

Illustration 1 - A table saw mounted buffer for 12" buffs.

The shop built buffer uses an inexpensive buffing head for 12” buffing wheels from Stewart MacDonald. This is bolted to a base made of a 1.5” thick piece of plywood (two pieces of 0.75” ply glued together). On the other end of this is a hinged hardwood plywood flap on which is mounted an idler shaft and bearing assembly with two sheaves (pulleys). My machine uses an off-the-shelf assembly for this, which is sold as what is called a bench mandrel by places like Woodworker's Supply. You can easily make something like this up from pillow blocks, stop collars, a chunk of shafting, and a couple of sheaves. A belt goes from the buffing head to one of the sheaves on the idler shaft. Another belt goes from the other sheave on the idler shaft to the drive sheave on the motor of the table saw. The saw I have is a Delta contractor's saw, and the motor hangs off the back of the saw cabinet on a hinged bracket. Other contractor's type saws use a similar arrangement. Both belts are tensioned by the weight of the motor. The buffer is mounted onto the saw table using a Rousseau T Nut Kit, which includes some T bolts that fit the miter slot and some threaded knobs. You can get this kit from Woodcraft. Part number is 143239. There is a stop block on the bottom of the plywood base which keeps the unit from being slid too far back in the miter slot.

Illustration 2 - The buffer uses an inexpensive buffing head from Stewart MacDonald.

The buffer head has three sheaves, the largest of which is 4”. The belt from this one goes to a 1.75” sheave on the idler shaft, and the other belt goes from a 3” sheave on the idler to the 2” sheave on the saw motor. This arrangement reduces the 3450 rpm of the motor to about 1000 rpm at the buffer shaft, which works well for me.

The pictures should give you a good idea of the basic construction of the buffer. The diagram shows dimensions and belt lengths for use with the sheave sizes indicated and with the Delta contractor's saw. Dimensions may well be different for other saws. V belt length calculation may be an art or it may be a science, but whether I wear my smock or my lab coat it seems to yield only a first approximation, and I still usually end up having to resort to trial and error (it's a trial because I make lots of errors). If you have to figure V belt lengths for this or other projects, try this online V belt length calculator.

Illustration 3 - An idler shaft and bearing assembly is mounted on a hinged flap at the rear of the base. The base is attached to the saw table by two T slot bolts. The knob of one of these is visible just below the hinges.

Illustration 4 One belt goes from the idler shaft to the motor. The weight of the motor pulling down on its mount pulls down on the flap, which tensions the belt to the buffing head.

Illustration 5 A stop block is mounted on the underside of the base. The T slot bolts and the stop block accurately locate the buffer on the saw table.