Q: Anyone have experience with small jewelry buffers?

B

bdaabat

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Jul 2, 2025
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Morning! 've seen these inexpensive variable speed buffers at Amazon and am and am curious if anyone here has experience with them.



Proposed application/use: Initially, I was looking for something small and relatively light to be able to use when visiting friends/family for the final sharpening/polishing step.

AND, I was recently contacted by a local restaurant that asked if I would be able to come to them to do the sharpening. I'm now thinking about it and seeing how I could make that work. At this stage of my life, I do NOT want to be hauling a full sized bench grinder around.

If I were to step a toe into "mobile" sharpening, getting something small and relatively light seems like it could be useful.

Thanks in advance!
Bruce
 
I've never used one like that, but I like the adjustable speed. Some wheels and compounds seem to have different sweet spots.
 
I have a small Fordom model mounted near my bench. It's very handy.
You should get one without vents (sealed motor.) Those will suck in polishing compound and ruin the motor fairly quickly.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
I have a small Fordom model mounted near my bench. It's very handy.
You should get one without vents (sealed motor.) Those will suck in polishing compound and ruin the motor fairly quickly.
Click to expand...
Got a good buy on a small sealed unit that was labelled as a dental lathe.
They can often be found on the secondary market for a reasonable price.
 
Thanks for the advice on the dental lathes! I took a look on Marketplace and didn't see anything reasonably close. Opted for the one from Amazon posted above. Had a chance to test it out a bit this afternoon. It works just fine. I was looking for compact and fairly light weight. This fits the bill. We'll see how it holds up.

Bruce
 
I got one for Christmas, but haven't used it yet. I need to set it up in my garage. I wanted to be able to slow the buffer down and buff up handles mostly.
 
T Taz : Sorry, not sure if you were referring to the other posts about dental lathes or my post about the small buffer I just got.

To your point: While the small buffer I purchased IS variable speed, the RPMs are higher than I think are ideal (lowest speed is stated to be 1750 RPM).

I've only just started testing (e.g., only ran 1 knife through it after getting it set up), but it worked well enough for me to decide to keep it and continue testing.

Bruce
 
Yeah, it's the same like yours. I know it won't go down super slow, but I typically run my generic foredom at around half speed or so. Since it's for handles to give them a nice gloss, I am using very light pressure, so the 1750 should be good and I can have 2 hands on it instead of the 1 of the foredom setup I am using currently. I am not trying to lean on it and get belt sander scratches out of blades!
 
Taz said:
I got one for Christmas, but haven't used it yet. I need to set it up in my garage. I wanted to be able to slow the buffer down and buff up handles mostly.
Click to expand...

I have the same unit but it's a burnishing machine for leather. Sometimes it doesn't start up and you have to switch it on/off. Other times it will start and immediately throw itself into high speed and you'll smell a little burning.

Mine still works though (as long as you don't apply too much pressure to the sanding drum).
 
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