Harbor Freight Tools has a great variable speed benchtop polisher for 3" discs and it's only $30. The problem is that you have to find a 3" muslin wheel for it which is kind of tough. Once you find the wheel, you will have to bore out the center to fit the chuck. Sounds like a pain but once you do it, you will have a compact ultimate polishing setup. For taping, you can use anything but I prefer the orange tape they sell at Dunn Edwards paint stores. Most blue and green painter's tapes are easy release so they come right off and regular masking tape isn't much better. The orange tape is super sticky but gives a nice sharp clean edge.
