Aluminium Polishing

[Craig Booth 1Participant @craigbooth1]

[Craig Booth 1Participant @craigbooth1]

Hi guys,

There are some amazing polished aluminium finishes on some of the projects posted here. What do you use to get such a finish? What materials, equipment, and techniques?

At the moment I have been using either 400, 600, then 1200 wet and dry paper, or 400,600,then 1200 carborundum powder mixed with oil using a soft felt pad on a dremel drill. Then finishing with a mop on a 3" bench grider.

Comes up ok, but no where near some of the examples I have seen.

Thanks in advance.

Craig

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

Hi Craig You seem to be the same as me till you go to the carborundum powder I then use polishing soap on mop and Finnish with solvol autosol polish on a mop.

David

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

I've been polishing aluminium for years but by far the best results can only be achieved in Photoshop or other similar photo editors.

But seriously, take a close look at your finished surface, if there's still any scratches/blemishes then you need to go back to whatever grit size it needs to take them off. 600 to 1200 does seem a rather large jump.

My parts are all hand hold sized with large areas that are well suited to mops. If you have anything smaller or fiddly to hold then you might be better off using a vibratory polisher.

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Having spent my working life as a mould maker for injection moulded plastic items I recall an expression. "Highly polished and deeply scratched" OK our moulds were made from tool steel a bit harder to polish. I never did have the patience to polish dies and ended up as a machinist. Polishing soap and a hard felt mop is a good starting point after the abrasive paper work.

[ChrisHParticipant @chrish]

Brasso works well in the final stages…….

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

A combination of Autosol metal polish and/or T-Cut, Colorcut paint polish. You'll get a finish close to chrome.

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