Buffing wheel safety.

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S. Heslop:
I do have a wire wheel so I might go with that. Using a rotary tool sounds like a good idea too. A handle was something I was considering but I was a bit worried that adding more mass to the parts might just make a heavier weight to get thrown, but then I like the idea of keeping my hands well away from a wire wheel.

awemawson:
I have a very healthy respect for buffing wheels ever since an incident at school in the metal work shop back in the 1960's. A boy was polishing a rather nice copper lamp that he'd made - basically copper angle brazed into a sort of fish tank. When the yelling stopped and the machine was turned off two of his fingers appeared to be completely severed. Fortunately the hospital stitched him up and he didn't lose any, but it was rather nasty. The lamp was just a twisted wreck :bugeye:

He wasn't wearing gloves. Now I wear heavy leather gloves if buffing, and try always to remember to wear a full face mask so if anything goes bouncing about at least my eyes should survive.

S. Heslop:
I overdid it.

I had a hard job preventing it from getting a pointy tip on the face. I might be best just deburring them by hand with a file, emery cloth, or the rotary tool before polishing them. The wire wheel is a bit too aggressive.

DMIOM:
yes, you'd be safer using a less aggressive bristle brush like the one I linked to earlier - they're non-metallic bristles

vtsteam:
Not for safety reasons, particularly, but I've found that as I've grown older, I enjoy files and filing more. A new file is a pleasure to use, and hard to explain why. Especially since when I was 13 my father had my brother and I filing and linishing parts at his machine shop as a summer job. In fact I had zero interest in machining after that up until I somehow re-discovered it on my own throught the Gingery books at 50 yrs age. Now I like filing. Go figure.

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