Buffing Drums for Surface Conditioning Tools
What are Abrasive Drums?
Abrasive drums are an attachment that works with different linear surface conditioning tools. They are generally about 4 inches across and formed in a cylinder drum-like shape. The center of these drums all have a 3/4" keyed shaft that connects them to surfacing tools and keeps them locked in place.
In addition to the polishing and buffing drums mentioned here, we also carry wire drums, coated abrasive sanding drums, and non-woven abrasive drums.
Buffing and Polishing Drums
While the other types of drums for surface conditioning tools have an abrasive element to it, buffing drums are made for the final stages of buffing and polishing different metals.
Since the drums are 4 inches across, they have a much larger surface area than other tools, such as angle grinder buffing attachments. Together, with a proper buffing compound, they can get a high gloss or mirror finish quickly with less effort than most other tools. This makes them a favorite for autobody workers who want to cut down on the time it takes to buff out an entire car, metal fabricators needing to prep large pieces of metal, and even a faster RV or Airstream polishing option.
Types of Buffing Drums
Spiral Sewn Buffing Drum
Spiral sewn polishing drums are made of a soft premium muslin cotton. The layers are made up of sheets of muslin cotton stitched together into a spiral pattern. Used with a buffing compound bar, they are made for first step cutting, coloring, and polishing metal surfaces.
These can be used in place of conventional muslin buffing wheels to cut and buff larger areas much quicker.
Wool Flap Buffing Drum
Our wool flap wheel buffing drums are a great last step buffing and polishing tool for large projects. They work well on flat and curved surfaces, capable of giving you a perfect mirror finish on different metals. Because of the continuous rotation of the drums and one-way pulling motion, wool flap wheel drums avoid buffing swirls that you might find with polishing wheels.
The construction of these drums has multiple flaps of wool felt affixed and positioned radially, fanning out from the drum’s center.
Reusing Polishing Drums
It is important to make sure that you don’t reuse the buffing drums with different buffing compounds. Just like any other polishing task, you’ll want to use a change out your drums for each different compound that you use. The buffing drums can be reused as long each drum is dedicated to one polishing compound type. Doing so will prevent you from mixing coarser polishing elements with the finer ones that get you the finish you are looking for.
What are the Different Surface Conditioning Tools?
These tools are set up like a small handheld drum sander, with a motor-operated piece of equipment stretching out to an in-line abrasive drum in the front. The drums spin in a pulling motion, continuously grinding in a forward and backward direction. The design of these tools makes it quicker and easier to work on a large flat surface area using a forward and backward motion.
Other names these tools may go by are contour surfacing tools, handheld drum sanders, drum grinders, burnishing machines, linear grinders, and contouring grinders.