Tripoli on Wax Buff Wheel. How do I to fix

[William Rogers]

I bought a set of Beall buffing wheels used. Well the turner had loaded the wax wheel with Tripoli. Looking at the Tripoli wheel I’m guessing it was used for wax. With 80 grit sandpaper and got most all of the Tripoli removed. I also used sandpaper to clean the other two wheels. I am speculating the white diamond was not contaminated with any other compound, but the Tripoli wheel was likely used for wax. The picture below is the wax wheel after the sandpaper. cleaning. Still it has an indication it had Tripoli on it.

The question is this sufficient or do I need to go further with the cleaning. I’m guessing the wheels could be machined washed. Suggestion/comments?

 

[John Torchick]

Replace it?

 

[William Rogers]

Replace it?

That is an option, not real expensive. Hoping someone has had this an come up with a good solution.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I bought a new wax wheel because my older one had been worn down from 8” to ~6.5” over the years from normal use (still use it as well).

Maybe just stick the corner of a board into it while running at 1500-2000 for a while? I would think after you’ve worn away the outer ~1/4” or so you’d be past the contamination.

I wouldn’t trust it though until I inspected it well and put some wax on a scrape piece of light maple first…

 

[Doug Freeman]

Sharp edge of a board can help. A stiff wire hand brush will get it. Be very judicious with the brush, full speed of the wheel, and very lightly feed the brush to the wheel surface.

 

[William Rogers]

I have fixed it. I sprayed Dawn power scrub and used a bristle brush. I left it soak for 45 minutes in warm water. drained the water and repeated the dawn power scrub. This time I added Tide to the water. I don’t see any Tripoli residue. Spun on lathe until damp dry and now have it in the sun to finish drying.

 

[Jamie Straw]

I would have wrapped some low-grit sandpaper around a board and "buffed" it. Might work. That's how I clean Tripoli wheels that have had too much compound put on them. Not sure if it would harm a wax wheel or not.

 

[Tim Hunter]

The tool for that is called a buffing wheel rake.

Tim

 

[John K Jordan]

I've removed Tripoli from Beall wheels by holding the teeth of a hacksaw or bandsaw blade against the spinning wheel. I removed a lot of fibers which was OK.

I have since quit using Tripoli completely. When I want a coarser polish grit I use Vonax in bar form; (Mark Sillay carries it)

I rarely use white diamond compound and never on dark wood since the pores can hold the white specs.

I do use the wax.

Anything I apply to beall buffing wheels is done VERY sparingly. With good sanding with fine paper very little is needed.

JKJ

 

[Richard Coers]

In my opinion you can’t remove the wax that is in the tripoli stick by mechanical means. Using something that chemically mixes or breaks down the wax was the way to go.