A lot of times you can pick-up a used motor at a pawn shop. I didn't spend an afternoon putting the one I have together after I had the materials/parts. Hoz, it won't walk away from you. If you push the part against the wheel hard enough to move the buffer you'll "dig a hole" in whatever your buffing. Can you say "ripples in the surface?". Riesel, the machine has enough weight to it and runs smooth in the bearings , there's no need to be on the other side of the shop when you throw the switch. It runs 'on par' with the Baldor buffers, that were in the bluing room, in gunsmithing school (MCC class of '93) (that's where I got the 32" shaft L). If it was unsafe to use or didn't perform, I'd do something else. I've got sense enough not to stick my fingers between a powered belt and pulley. I do half a dozen slow rust blue jobs a year and get paid well for them (I won't work for dog catcher wages). That home shop made buffer is a big part of those jobs. I use that buffer daily to polish-up some part on something I'm working on, not just for the bluing jobs I do. If I was to build another, the only thing I might change is the shaft size, go from 3/4" up to 1" or maybe 1 1/8". If that buffer scares ya', there's plenty of other stuff in my shop that'd send ya' screamin' for the hills! I though every 'real' gunsmith built stuff like this! Apparently , not the 'new age' gunsmiths.
The rpm of the machine you decide on should be determined by the diameter of the wheels you plan on running.
you don't want this thing rockin' and rollin', or be chasing it around the shop while you're trying to polish something out. You want the base to have some weight to it. I believe I bought my wheels from Jantz Supply. There are 4 stitched muslin wheels 'sandwiched' together on each side. I run 240g on the left and 320g on the right. Don't need to polish past 320g for most slow rust blue like I do.
