One of my friends gave me a couple of used telephone signal circuit protectors. These two are all ceramic cylinders about 4 inches long and 3/8 inch diameter. These particular ones are no longer any good for telephone service, but chucked in a drill they sure do a great job of polishing guide feet. They knock off the last little burrs and shine the feet up really well. They also put a fine edge on a hunting knife.

Now I can rough shape the guide feet on my Dremel tool and polish them out on these cylinders. Works great.

I have no idea where he got them, but I assume one of those traveling tool shows or some such. Anyway, they work good if you ever run across one.

Joe Douglas

thank for the tip .

The brass wire wheel that comes in a lot of the dremel style tool acc. kits works very well also.

DR

Some friends in a manufacturing plant get the same cermaic cylinders that were taken from used thermocouples of some sort.

Harbor Freight sells a 3 1/2" bench grinder with a red grinding wheel and a fiber polishing wheel, much less abrasive. Sells for $40.

I grind to shape on one wheel and finish/polish on the other. All in one compact tool that sits on the corner of my bench. My only complaint is that on larger heavier guides, the motor will lose speed on those heavy duty guides so it takes a little longer on the grinding side.

I think the belt sander method is probably a little quicker for grinding, especially on the heavier guides, but I like having the polisher/grinder all handy in the same place, and I only do heavier guides a small percentage of the time so it's the best tool for me.

Terry

Terry,
I keep a harbor freight - 1 inch wide belt sander on the back of the work bench as well.
I also keep a few different grits of paper handy.
For most of the guide work, I use about a 180-220 belt.
With the belt sander, I hold the guide so that it is at 90 degrees to the belt movement.
If I use 180 grit paper on the sander, I find that I essentially put tiny micro grooves across the face of the guide feet during grinding.
Generally speaking, I leave these guides with the tiny micro grooves on the guide feet. My thinking is that the tiny micro grooves act like like little finger to catch and hold the thread and keep the guides from slipping. The grooves are so fine that it is difficult to see with out magnification, but it is enough to give the thread a slight grip to make the winding both easier and the guides less prone to slippage.



Take care
Roger