Handi Butler

[northwesty]

Picked this up at the local thrift store, never used, and never used by me - so has anyone used one of these? As you can see, this has a grinder etc. on it, does a buffer wheel fit on this unit and if so does a generic one or do I have to find something from Kirby?

Thanks any info would be most appreciated.

 

[briankirbyclass]

Yes, i have used the Handi Butler with my Kirby Classic Omega many times. I do not know if any old grinding wheel will fit or not,,if i had to guess, i would say no. Any attachments, wheels, accessories used on the Handi Butler should come from Kirby. Except for maybe the felt buffing pad that goes over one of the round disks on the hand held piece,,seems like i got one from a hardware store after my old one wore out.
Yes, the Handi Butler is definatly handy!
I use mine for polishing my biker leathers and biker boots,,and have used the Handi Butler for polishing my Harley, and my car.
Have used it for sharpening knives also.
At the rear of the Handi Bitler is the connection port for the hand tool cable,,this goes to the hand piece and makes the Handi Butler mobile,,you can connect anything to the hand piece that you would connect to the front of the Handi Butler itself.

Always wear safetly goggles or some kind of eye protection when using the Handi Butler,,and use the machine with extreme caution.
Remember that this machine (attachment) was invented way before many of the safety regulations we now have were in place.
The hand tools such as the Sabre Saw (avalible with the Kirby Classic 3) do work, but i wouldnt use it as my primary saw. It does work, but dont take it to the bank or plan on building a house with it.
The hand tool used as a buffer tho is EXCELLENT.

 

[tolivac]

for grinding wheels-would try to use the ones sold thru Kirby-the RPM of the unit has to be known before selecting a replacement wheel other than the Kirby one.The wheel must be rated for or above the RPM(Pref above)of the unit.Maybe the Kirby wheel has a RPM rating marked on it-this will allow to select some other grind wheel if required.And for additional safety--DO NOT use the grinding wheel on the flex shaft UNGUARDED as often shown in the Kirby books-this can be VERY dangerous-an unguarded wheel can fracture with the force of a grenade!

 

[twocvbloke]

That one's missing the plastic guard that sits over the wheels, it's supposed to have a slot over it to sharpen knives, I forget which bit that's meant to be on though, if you do plan to use it though, be very careful....

The RPM is printed on the label, note the "Safe maximum Speed" printed on it...

 

[Elektrolux]

RE: Handi Butler.

You have what looks like a Mark IV Series Handi butler used from the D50 into the Classic. The color of the rubber parts , if you have any (cable, plastic cover, wheel cups) would hint more of what model it was sold for. I have a D50 and D80 but inside rubber parts are both tan but the box for my D80 is green to match other D80 boxes

The outer small grinder unscrews left hand threads then the larger wheel can be pulled off as it is only held in place magnetically. The Mark III is similar but uses a wrench to remove large wheel and a slotted screw driver to remove small wheel

Here's a photo of most of the items that can come with a Handi Butler kit of that time. Later the wheels mounted magnetically & the drill bit holder was an add on as well as an optional jig saw.