I bought a sisal buffing wheel from Eastwood, but as soon as I turned on the buffer...my sisal wheel started shredding. Didn't even touch a piece of stainless to it yet, only some compound. Check out the pic... Is this normal?? Some of the shreds were long enough to slap your forearm while buffing!

Thought maybe it was turning too high of rpm, my 3/4 hp motor turns 3450 rpm, Eastwoods buffers turn 3600 rpm, so it shouldn't be an issue of high rpm.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm42/jbasga01/sisalwheel.jpg

Yep, pretty normal. You might want to slow it down if you can. That will help prolong it's life.

Yup, it's normal. You can cut the frayed ends off with scissors or burn them off. But if you burn them, make sure you sacrifice a scrap piece of metal to the polishing gods, before you polish the important stuff.

thanks fellas, Eastwood said the same when I asked them today also. I'll be using the eye protection and long sleeves and give it a go!! Thanks again.

x3 normal,
But also wear a face mask b/c you breath in all those cotton fibers with compound cake that fly around.

yes, always wear eye protection. Always!!
The fine compounds that come off a just dust, are really bad for your eyes also.