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After years of micro-meshing my varnish finishes I finally have a buffing set up ready to go. I'm wondering how most of you handle buffing around the soundhole. Do you make some kind of insert for the soundhole so you can buff right over it, or do you just buff in very samll passes tword the waist and then tword the soundhole? Also, on tight waisted guitars like SJs if it best to get some smaller diameter buffing wheels or just buff from the middle tword each edge across the grain?

                    Thanks , Paul

I buff around the sound hole so that the rotation of the wheel is in to the sound hole at the lower contact point of the wheel so that the wheel will not grab. This requires some rotational manipulation of the body

I find that it's very easy to overdo the buffing around the soundhole. Not to the point of a burn through, but enough to get a ripple effect between the late & early wood lines.
I have found it best to load on the Menzerna & buff very gently in that area. With the very light pressure, the possibility of damage from catching an edge is greatly reduced. Just let the buff do the work, & you'll be fine.
I like the latex glove idea... I'm certainly gonna give that a try!

Very good point. In fact you never need to apply much pressure at all. Instead you keep the wheel loaded with compound and let the compound do the work. adding additional pressure only increases the heat build up and will cause you grief.

Trust me I know too well MichaelP39058.5394212963

michael's point about letting the buffing compound do the work and not leaning in on your buffing wheel is very valid. it is also just one of the reasons not to have a big motor on your buffer when you are starting out. a 1/4 hp will probably stall before it burns if you lean too hard. bigger motors just keep on spinning, keep on buffing, keep on burning..., and certainly make it harder to retain control of the work if you catch an edge.

Paul one more tip I will give you. Some people buff out after the guitar is assembled complete. While this is possible it is difficult to get to some areas well if the neck is on the body. I prefer to buff the body complete prior to attaching the neck. I often do have to do some touch up when complete but not much and this makes getting into the waist and neck block areas of the sides much easier with less risk of damaging the neck on the buff arbor or shaft.

Also if buffing after the fretboard is fretted either mask off the fretboard so that the frets will not contact the wheel or avoid the frets in some manner. The nickel in the frets will turn your wheel black. I don't think this causes any real transfer issues but I don't like it.