My Homemade Dremel Stand!

That really cool, great job!

That's a quality looking stand. Very nice.

I bet money that gold falls to $700 an ounce by next Christmas. I'm thinking about either selling my horde now or waiting for the very distant future. I seriously don't see gold going past $1300 for many many years...

nice stand.. now all you need to do is add a water squirt-er for the bit to help it keep cool on metal or other hard stuff.

I'm jealous, I cant make anything out of wood. Nice job!

That is some fine wood work my friend. And a good plan you have also....

Wow that looks great! Looking into polishing equipment myself actually...just trying to convince the wife of the many ways my cunning plan will benefit her as well. All the different buffing/polishing compounds and rouges, felt/cotton/sisal/silicon buffing wheels, points, etc. etc...makes my head spin!

Nice Dremel rig, should work real well. I've just used mine holding it in my hand with the ring on my finger. No worries of overheating the ring this way, if it gets uncomfortable, you are overheating it....
Side benefit has been my wife running outside with all her jewelry for me to shine up for her... she never even blinked when I told her I needed a new rotary tool and some polishing wheels. What a difference with just a few minutes on rings.

Nice setup and it looks like it will do the job nicely.

]I have been experimenting for a while now & find these stitched polishing wheels to be the best so far and much cheaper to buy them this way.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151087841011?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Meggie ...

Awesome Craftsmanship.

Nice work man, that looks great!

Just to be clear, the craftsmanship has more to do with the woodworking teacher that assisted me.

meggie said:

Nice setup and it looks like it will do the job nicely.

]I have been experimenting for a while now & find these stitched polishing wheels to be the best so far and much cheaper to buy them this way.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151087841011? ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Meggie ...

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Meggie thanks for the link, I am going to give them a try!

That is a nice piece of wood working there. Lucky guy, you have good connections in the wood department. HH

That is one beautiful piece of woodwork and a wonderfully creative way to mount a Dremel. Now, no professional jewelers use dremels to polish jewelry, they run at too high RPMs and have very little torque. To make a good buffing machine you need only to recover an old 1/3 horsepower motor from an old washing machine or such, 1725 RPM is good, and 3350 is OK. These motors are fairly easy to come by. Then you just need to mount it on a board, install an in-line on/off switch and you're ready to go. Can be done for under ten bucks if you get a free motor. Get a tapered spindle for the shaft and some buffs including an inside ring buff and you will be buffing pro style. A good place to get all your jewelry supplies is Rio Grand out in Albuquerque, NM. Online ordering is fast and easy with them. To all of you who buff ANYTHING get a good respirator (no, those cheap disposable paper ones are not good) because breathing the resulting dust is harmful to your health. A good one will set you back about $35.00, but it is a NECESSARY piece of gear.

Gunsil that is great information!

By the way, any old machinery motor 1/4-1/2 horsepower works well. The lower RPM 1750 are easier to use without grabbing and flipping the polished item out of your hands. You can increase or decrease the surface speed of the buffing wheel by using smaller or larger diameter wheels. You can also set a box of any material so the back half of the wheel sits in it to collect the dust and buffing residue. If you want to get even more pro put a hole in the box and hook a vacuum cleaner hose in the hole for a dust free buffer. These motors are in any washer or dryer you see out by the road on trash day, and almost always in working condition since it is usually the transmission or controls that go bad in these machines. You need to mount the motor so the wheel turns downward rather than upward. I have mounted the motors on a piece of 2x6 board to give more wheel clearance and put little rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from moving on the bench. Often I see old working electric motors at flea markets for around ten bucks. Old broken table saws, anything that uses a motor in the above horsepower range will work fine. Any jewelry supply house sells the tapered spindles for 5-10 bucks, just make sure it is for the proper size shaft of your motor and is for the proper direction of spin. They attach simply by sliding over the motor shaft and tightening the supplied set screws. With a tapered spindle you use buffing wheels that just have a small hole in the center and they just quickly spin on and off the spindle for easy wheel changes. The compounds you will need are 'bobbing compound" for deep scratches (removes a lot of material fast), "tripoli" or "white diamond" compound for lesser scratches and for use after bobbing, and red rouge for a final polish. Sometime the white diamond will leave a satisfactory shiny finish, depending on your taste. You will need a different wheel for each compound you use. For about fifty bucks total with a free used motor you will be able to professionally polish jewelry, silverware, bowls, and any other small objects you require. Zam compound can be used to bring back the polish on softer stones such as turquoise and malachite, and it also puts a nice shine on metals.

stewart73 said:

Wow that looks great! Looking into polishing equipment myself actually...just trying to convince the wife of the many ways my cunning plan will benefit her as well. All the different buffing/polishing compounds and rouges, felt/cotton/sisal/silicon buffing wheels, points, etc. etc...makes my head spin!

Click to expand...

See my post regarding compounds. Felt wheels are for certain stone polishing. Wool wheels (stitched) are used for bobbing compound, stitched cotton or linen wheels for tripoi or white diamond compounds (I recommend white diamond) and unstitched cotton wheels for red rouge. Stitched cotton for Zam compound.