How to polish aluminum?

[Funky]

Just got my Noisy Cricket and I want to polish the pieces before assembly. What polishing tool do I need for my dremmel and is there a polishing compund that I should use to make it shiny?

 

[Pilot]

If it's actual aluminum and not plated parts (I'm not familiar with the kit) then Eagle One Mag & Aluminum Polish is *fantastic* stuff. I've used it on all sorts of metal bits to make them nice and shiny and pretty. It's very mildly abrasive and has never left any swirl marks on anything I've used it on. You can also take it outside and shine up your bumper after you're done with the gun.

As far as the Dremel goes, just use one of the soft felt wheels or drums at low speed. I'd actually try doing it by hand with a soft cotton rag at first, you may find that it won't require much effort at all. Work in small areas, and wipe off/replace the dirty polishing compound fairly frequently with fresh stuff. It shouldn't take very long to rub off any oxidation and really bring the shine out.

 

[Funky]

Oooooooo...thanks for the tip.

 

[minieffects]

mothers mag polish and a rag or dremel with soft wheel


minieffects

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

I just use a polishing kit I bought from Home Depot. It was $12-$15.

It came with several sizes of polishing wheels, and several types of polishing compounds. I bought a seperate Jewrey polish for non-ferrous metals.

I mounted the polishing wheel in the drill press, set it for a high speed, load the polishing compound on the spinning wheel, and went to work.

This started as a regular Chen Obi emitter. I polished it to a mirror shine, you can see SpongeBobs reflection in the emitter face.

[image]http://images16.fotki.com/v372/photos/9/976173/4001324/spongbobobi001-vi.jpg[/image]

 

[Funky]

Yow, that looks great. James, if you come across the name of the kit (or at least what to look for at HD) please drop me a line. That looks uber fantastic...

 

[Gigatron]

I've always preferred Mother's Mag and Aluminium polish and a rag. A little bit of time and some elbow grease produces outstanding results. It's easy to use, put a little dab on the rag, rub it in and it will start to turn black (that's the oxidation coming off). Then move to a clean part of the rag and buff it off. When the black stuff stops coming off, your part is polished. I like to use an old cotton t-shirt as they're cheap and readily available.

I tried doing it with the buffing wheel on the dremmel and to be completely honest, I wasn' exactly satisfied with the result. If you're not careful, you could end up putting odd marks in the surface of your piece. Plus you need several wheels to do one job. The buffing wheels clog up fast and in order to get a high shine, you need a really clean wheel.

-Fred

 

[tripoli]

The cricket kits had some fine scratches inthe pieces. I would recomend wet sanding with a 800 grit sand paper followed by a 1000 grit, 1500 grit and finally 2000 grit sand paper to get the scratches out. Then use a polish. That will give the piece a near mirror finish.

For polishing, you can use any number off polishes. I tend to use a wax like turtle wax paste on a fine cotton cloth. With a little polishing you get a super finish that is also protected against oxidation.

 

[The Dude]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripoli @ Dec 12 2006, 08:58 AM) [snapback]1376214[/snapback]</div>

The cricket kits had some fine scratches inthe pieces. I would recomend wet sanding with a 800 grit sand paper followed by a 100 grit, 1500 grit and finally 2000 grit sand papaer to get the scratches out. Then use a polish. That will give the piece a near mirror finish.

For polishing, you can use any number off polishes. I tend to use a wax like turtle wax paste on a fine cotton cloth. With a little polishing you get a super finish that is also protected against oxidation.
[/b]

What Trip said.

Doing the wet sanding is really the best way..especially since you need to remove the machining marks inherit with this specific kit.

And to correct Trip a bit..so not to cause confusion...

Do not go from 800 grit to 100.

Go from 800 grit to 1000, then 1500 and so on. (I am sure that was a typo on Trip's part.)

If there are some scratches that are a little deeper...I would start with 400 then work your way up.

Also...make sure to change the direction of the sanding for each grit change.

I miss my MIB2 Cricket. (I sold it a long time ago.) But I still have my MIB1 version...which I believe is pretty rare.

 

[tripoli]

You are correct, lower number to higher number with the sand paper. Ifthere is a deep scratch, you may need to go a lower grit paper first. Well worth the extra work to get it super nice and shiny.

 

[Goldenrod]

I went out today and bought some of the this stuff and tried it on my LFL Jango helmet and man does this stuff work great.

Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup







<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Gigatron @ Dec 12 2006, 06:22 AM) [snapback]1376198[/snapback]</div>

I've always preferred Mother's Mag and Aluminium polish and a rag. A little bit of time and some elbow grease produces outstanding results. It's easy to use, put a little dab on the rag, rub it in and it will start to turn black (that's the oxidation coming off). Then move to a clean part of the rag and buff it off. When the black stuff stops coming off, your part is polished. I like to use an old cotton t-shirt as they're cheap and readily available.

I tried doing it with the buffing wheel on the dremmel and to be completely honest, I wasn' exactly satisfied with the result. If you're not careful, you could end up putting odd marks in the surface of your piece. Plus you need several wheels to do one job. The buffing wheels clog up fast and in order to get a high shine, you need a really clean wheel.

-Fred

[/b]