So on YouTube there is a dude called Cameron Niemela who does pretty good bike builds. He has a wrecking business and cleans the parts to be as-new. Anyway, one way he cleans the parts quickly is with a pedestal buffing machine with a scotchbrite wheel. Anyone know where to get reasonably priced buffing machines? I was wondering if there were threaded rod adapters to just use an electric motor from like a washing machine or something?
A good old fashioned 240v 2 speed drill, a vice big enough to hold the drill.. plus http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/Product/Cleaning-Polishing-Set-3-Piece/272931 You can buy heaps of drill bits to do slightly different things...bench grinders are ok, I have one set up for polishing and grinding but the attachments add up, where as the drill bits are a couple of bucks each....
Most 8" bench grinder's don't have a lot of power, so you use one just go very easy. Bunning's sell tapered spindle's https://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?q=josco spindle&redirectFrom=Any Josco buffing wheel's https://www.bunnings.com.au/search/products?q=josco buff&redirectFrom=Any
Re washing machine motor's , if you choose this way try to find the GMF Brand. I cant remember what colour the three speed motor is , but get this one as you can wire it up to suit the speed you require via one wire change.They are really tough motor's. Just looked up on Gumtree and there are some GMF's listed.I thought they would have no value these day's as i yous to to rewind them around thirty years ago.
I just did this, I bought a 2nd hand grinder for $30, bought new spindles and buffing wheels, works a treat
I have an old high school 3 phase buff down the back doing nothing, but i haven't had 3 phase for about 17 year's now since i had my workshop. I have had a couple of bench grinder's and used a spindle on them, make sure it is bolted to the ground solidly though. I now mainly use my Makita buff for polishing, it's pretty handy because it's so portable/maneuverable, i have an adapter with a tapered spindle to suit and use various sisal mop's, stitched mop's, and calico mop's for finish polishing, i also make my own scotchbrite pad's to use in the smaller adapter's The 2x mop's in the plastic bag's (4" 50 leaf and 5" 50 leaf) only arrived from ebay china today, they were $6.50 for the pair inc delivery https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2-8-Ser...var=631417307933&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 It's so much fun getting blackened polish everywhere from buffing alloy's, i usually end up with a black face and blackend beard These are some of my polishing mop's And a couple of pic's of my FZR rear footpeg's after spending 2 minute's on it with the small stiched wheel on the makita buff and using some white polish/wax Pic's don't do it justice either.
here is my first real attempt using various grades of sandpaper @Frankster helped me pickup this old GS1100 ( the gold one Frank) from a property in Greenbank, it was left to the elements for many years. I wet blasted the cover to get the grime off and then used my buff and varying grades of sand paper to smoothen it out and polish it Still a WIP, but I'm liking what I see
Absolutely. I still think with all the tools you have at your disposal, you could do a supurb resto on either of those bikes. The VJMC National Rally is on the Gold Coast next year...plenty of time for QLD folks to get their bikes up to scratch and enter them in the relevant class.