using rotary sander as a buffer - too many RPM?

[Steve French]

Hello all. I'm new here.

I hope this doesn't sound too stupid, so please don't flame.

I have an old Black & Decker sander that I picked up at a flea market for about 20 bucks. It's a 7in sander that I originally thought was an old grinder (didn't investigate too heavily - but it looked just like another grinder that I have). I am a welder so I thought it would be handy, but I soon realized that it was a rotary sander - way less RPM than what I'd need for a grinding wheel.

Well, I'm getting more into detailing, and I've been curious about trying to convert this to a rotary buffer. Tried to search for this, but all I could find was people trying to use DA sanders as buffers.

I think I could get a backing plate to fit, but my concern is the RPM and it doesn't appear to be adjustable (this may sound stupid, but I haven't found anyway to adjust the speed. Some of these old tools seem be setup quite different so maybe it is but I haven't found how yet.)

I am not sure what this sander is rated at, but I've read that rotary buffers should only be used up to 3,000 RPM?

What would happen if it was more? Just more risk of damaging paint?
I wouldn't test this on a car. I have a few pieces of scrap cut out from sunroof installations that I can do all the practice in the world on before I'd ever try it on a car.

Thanks a lot.

[mbkite]

Modern compound and pollish are made today for lower rpm
May be you could put a dynabrade on it and make it a da but I dont know for shure

[davidc]

Your assumption of to high a speed can/will ruin the paint as it will get very hot very fast. If you want/need a rotary get one that is adjustable. If starting out Harbor Freight has such a rotary that may fill the void.

Dave