Inbound - Baldor 3/4hp Buffer Model 333b

[coolidge]

Well I pulled the trigger on this and it should arrive tomorrow! I already have the heavy Baldor cast iron stand for it. In spite of Enco's 25% off sale and free shipping it was still less expensive to purchase it from Grizzly even with the sales tax and $24 shipping. On occasion poppa Grizzly is the man for this type of stuff.

First job in the hopper for this polishing the aluminum bar for my DRO install. I could take a skim cut with a face mill but I'm concerned with the bar warping by relieving the surface tension and I need them to remain nice and flat.

This will replace my under powered $40 Harbor Freight buffer. No complaints it delivered $40 worth of value but the shaft was like 1/2 inch, lots of vibration, and I was stalling it out too often.

 

[JimDawson]

I could take a skim cut with a face mill but I'm concerned with the bar warping by relieving the surface tension and I need them to remain nice and flat.

Nice buffer!

If you are using a piece of extruded bar stock, it ain't flat! Every extruded bar I have ever seen has a slight wasp waist cross section and sometimes are a slight arc. Taking a light cleanup pass is the proper thing to do. It will be stable.

 

[ch2co]

Drool worthy ! Balder makes great products. Enjoy!

CHuck the grumpy old guy

 

[coolidge]

Its flat Jim I took a precision ground 24 inch rule with me to check. Well flat enough for a scale +-.002 lengthwise, cross wise is a non issue as the bar is 2.5 inches wide vs the scale is 1 inch wide and will be positioned in the center. As for bowing when faced I'm not so sure it won't with surface tension on one side and relieved on the other. But I'm lucky when it comes to things bowing when machined or welded

 

[middle.road]

One thing to consider if your shop isn't climate controlled, is that aluminum will move even with just a 5° temp change.
So if you're going a distance of 2' you might want to have one of the mounts 'float' where is connects to the scale.
This is assuming of course that the scale is steel.
And as Jim mentioned, you might want to skim cut it just to relieve the surface tension of an extruded piece.

Meanwhile back to Baldor: *WOOT* As they say, proper tool for the proper job....

 

[Bob Korves]

The heat of buffing it might cause it to bow as well, depending on the thickness.

 

[joshua43214]

Not sure what the concern is about the straightness of the mounting bar. The scale should only touch at each end and float in the middle. I have seen people add a center support to very long magnetic scales on lathes, you should not need any center support for glass scales though.
If for some reason you need to mount the scale to a bar rather than simple spacers, you would probably be better served with angle stock rather than bar stock. It will weigh less and be more rigid.

Nice buffer BTW

 

[coolidge]

This is a magnetic scale which bows and twists at the slightest provocation, it requires a thick rigid mounting surface.