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I bought a Shop Fox arbour and a 1/3 hp 1725 rpm motor to drive it. The triple pulley on the arbour would allow me to slow the speed quite a lot. The booklet says not to use wheels larger than 10" on it. But I seem to recall reading here that some use 12" wheels successfully/safely. The helpful fellow at Caswell's Canadian branch said a lot of their luthier customers use the 12" Canton vented wheels and I am inclined to go with that (two on each end) unless it's not a good idea with this machine. Any experience out there?

I expect the only issue is lack of power to drive the larger wheel. Increasing the diameter by 2" means you're using a longer arm to apply torque. You may need to use a lighter touch on the wheel so it doesn't bog down, but if others are doing it successfully, odds are you can too.

I have the Shop Fox arbor with a 1/2 hp motor, and I use 12" buffs and it works great. I have it on the slowest speed/pully.

You are going to like it!!

Thanks to you both for replies. MaineGeezer, I had the same thoughts as you, but was hoping I could make it work. Kevin, I re-read the thread describing your setup, which was partly what got me leaning to using the larger wheels offered by Caswell, so I am glad you weighed in. My motor is only 1/3 hp (recommended by Shop Fox) but John Hall says he runs one with a 1/4 hp motor (perhaps with smaller wheels? not sure . . . ) And I am planning to run it at lower speeds, certainly until I get a little experience. I realize, too, the 12" wheel will run faster than a 10" at the buffing edge. There is a helpful YouTube video showing Robbie O'Brien buffing with large wheels on a homemade setup. The interesting thing is he allows the belt to be quite slack, so if you expect too much of it, the belt just slips and the wheel stops. I kind of like that safety valve. I went ahead and ordered four 12" Canton wheels from Caswell Canada, what they call vented wheels, a rake to prepare the wheels as described by Brian Howard, and their recommended fine and extra-fine white sticks, designed for acrylics but recommended for lacquer on wood too. Now I have to figure out a base, which in my crowded shop will have to be bench-clampable or something I think. Bruce W.

yes I run larger wheels and set up with a slip pully
Sounds like a live feed topic

Yep I have my belt pretty loose too, just the weight of the motor pulling down. (motor mounted to a hinged base)

yes that is how I have mine set up
they are buffers not grinders

Here is my finished product, after a hiatus to sell my wife's business, and put together a new workbench and vise. I used a tool stand from Shop Fox that is quite narrow to mount it on. I replaced the "butcher block finish" particle board top with two pieces of 5/8 plywood glued together. This is quite similar to one I found online by a luthier named Brad Lowe, and I looked at others too. To start I will use it with the motor behind and quite high, using the quite short belt supplied by Shop Fox. I have only just run it a little, and it seems fine and stable, but the motor does kick a little on startup. I can un-build it and modify it to put the motor below if necessary, or modify the height (which was just a guess). When the weather warms up a little I can get back to outdoor spraying and try this buffer out.

I recently put one of these together, I first tried a 1/2 hp motor and it would stall out with 12" buffs. I ended up putting a 1 hp motor on it and it works great!

1 hp is way too much
I use 1/3 be very careful not to catch an edge