RNBRAD Posted November 13, 2004 Report Share Posted November 13, 2004 This guide is very informative. Though you won't use everything in it, it will help you decide what's best for your application. Also a link of tools used with a Dremmel and two other great links. Caswell's Buff Guide Dremmel Tools Metal Polishing 101 Meat Heads Instructional I personally use mainly air tools for polishing. I use a straight and angled die-grinders. Angled for surface preparation and the straight for polishing small area's. I use the 3M Scotch-brite roloc disks. They come in 1" to 4" diameters and you need to buy the adapter plate. Then these things just thread on and off. They have any grit sandpaper for these things as well as the scotch-brite pads. Generally the scotch-brite brown coarse disks will remove really deep castings without gouging the aluminum. Then you can use the finer grades to get the metal really smooth. Another cool things is you can buy the 1" adapter plate and use the 2" disks, cut the outer edge of the disk toward the center to make them really flexible for getting into small grooves. What you can't get with this can be done with a dremmel and cotton wheels. For anything that's flat I always use an electric palm sander starting from around 150 grit to 300 depending on the roughness of the surface. Do all your sanding wet, get a little spray bottle. Then I will go to around 400 and last around 600 grit. Some people go even finer, I just let my polishing wheel do a little more work. Last but not least you will need a bench grinder or a buffing machine. The more power, the bigger the wheel you can use and the faster the polishing will be. Also dependent on the size of item you are polishing. I specifically use 12'' cotton wheels on my buffing machine. Some are more flexible and some are thicker. This is by no means the end all information to polishing. It's just what works for me. Good luck, hope this helps and any questions feel free to ask and any recommendations are always welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stclark04 Posted November 13, 2004 Report Share Posted November 13, 2004 Bets its not as informative as this one!! http://www.bansheehq.com/forums/index.php?...38&hl=polishing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NugShee Posted November 14, 2004 Report Share Posted November 14, 2004 Well guys for every aplication there are 10 diferent ways of polishing meatheads looked nice but he invested some money in supply's and has probably spent more then that on wasting supplies during trial and error. A person can just stick with a few polishing wheels and some green compound and it will be just as nice. A caution for those of you going that route there is a trick to it. speed and pressure are the keys to a good polish job. Use very little of both and it will turn out great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheerider11 Posted November 18, 2004 Report Share Posted November 18, 2004 thanks cause i really didn't know how to before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badassbanshee479 Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 Great info thanks guys!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonShee Posted November 30, 2005 Report Share Posted November 30, 2005 ttt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducman Posted December 1, 2005 Report Share Posted December 1, 2005 RNBRAD Your short synopsis of polish prepwork is right on the money and is the exact steps I found that work best after a couple hundred hours of buffing and prepping. The biggest trick to polishing is getting the prep work done efficiently so you dont spend a life time on every object, and not screwing up the surface by getting too aggressive so you have to spend more time sanding than necessary. To get the finished surface to a perfect mirror polish takes the right buffing wheels with the right compounds and a little experience as well. I might just add, I buy the scotch brite (I think 4" or 5") wheels at Wall Mart that have the 1/2 inch rod in them, dremmel off the rod and then dremmel a 3/4" hole where the rod was and mount them on my bench buffer. Works awsome for removing coatings and surface imperfections fast with out gouging the surface. They cost about $7 ea so it can get spendy if you eat up a your wheels fast on rough/jagged surfaces. Also for the first time polishers, never use a coarse grit sand paper by hand in a back/forth motion to remove surface imperfections, the gouges/lines it will leave are very hard to get out, almost as bad as the surface imperfections themselves. Always use a orbital sander untill you get to at least a 400 or 600 grit. I also get my buffing compounds from Harbor Freight for cheap, I think they are $2 a stick (1"x6"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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