Who wants to learn to polish?

I know more than a few have asked me to do something on the topic. But the question has been the format.

So I decided that the logical choice would be one that progresses. So I am going to start with basic polishing 101 for a few reasons;

1. So you can buy the tools needed to polish a little at a time.

2. So you can have a chance to practice with the 101 class.

3. So I can take my time at doing a thread that makes sense, and leads up to the real bling stuff.

So be patient, and let's try to keep the comments focused on the 101 class, there will be more towards the wicked stuff to come.

For starters there are 2 basic kinds of polishing. First is abrasive. Second is non-abrasive. This 101 class only talks about NON-abrasive polishing with paste type polish.

We are starting with Aluminum and Anodized Aluminum only!


Here we have a set of basic used pedals.

So you ask, what can we do with these to bring them to life?

I would say....follow me. I will show you how to do a no reflection, basic restoration polish.


Take a close look at them and remove any dents or damage before you get started. These pedals are going up for auction after I am done with this portion of the presentation, so I am not going to be too fussy with that part of it.

Not only does the aluminum look bad, but the anodized part looks bad too.

Step One. Is there anodizing on it. Colorless or clear, or colored? The most you can do with anodized parts is really make the natural color come out. We will go on to stripping ano much later in the presentation. How can you tell if is clear anodized? In short, if polish does little to the shine, then it is clear anodized. Anodizing is ONLY on aluminum.

For now. I am just going to tell you that these pedals are not anodized except for the gold.


Step 2. Disassemble them. Degrease them. And give them a bubble bath. Remove all dirt.

Step 3. Choose your weapon. Here is a very much needed tool to do polishing. A multi-speed Dremel with a small cotton/linen wheel. Felt wheels have a use, but mostly they suck.I am going to use Met-All polish. If you want to use mothers or something, that's fine. Again, we are only going to discuss non-abrasive technique for now. If you don't have these tools, put them on your x-mas list.



Here is the other weapon of choice. The Black and Decker Mouse Sander Polisher. If you don't have one of these, put it on your x-mas list now! You want the newer one with Gel pads, and tip sanding attachments.



For starters, lets work with the Dremel.

First little hint. put some paste in the lid and put the lid on the can. 2 reasons. First you don't want the paste to dry up and get thick. Second, (Hear me now, or hear me later!, lol) you don't want to contaminate your paste with junk flying around off the wheel! This will ruin it for any future bling jobs later!

Take some paste.on an acid brush and brush it on. You need paste to get the job done. No dry wheels here. You want it to stay moist and fluid here. The longer it is fluid, the longer it works. Use slow speeds with the wheel. It is not about pressure, it is about contact time, and number of times the wheel goes around on it. If your paste dries up and turns to black goo, you are spinning the wheel too fast and getting it toooooo hot! Slow down, let it work.


Now, you will quickly see that you can't get into many of the areas on these pedals.
Here is the next trick.
Take some PLASTIC Q-tips and cut them in half. Try and keep them in 2 separate piles! Keep them oriented! Some are wound backwards to the direction of rotation. Put some goop in the holes, and go to town with the q-tips. Don't spin them too fast, and dont push hard on them. They will tell you that you are doing it wrong when they fly off, and hit you in the forehead.


Now, if they are the ones that are wound the right way, they will work for a very long time. Sometimes they will grow a booger on the end, but they work really good. Just cut the booger off with a razor blade and keep going.

IF the q-tip flies apart right away, it is wound backwards. Get a new one from the other pile. You will use the backwards ones for clean up, later.



Remember, as long as the paste is gooey and black, keep going. If it dries up too fast, you are spinning the tool way too fast.

This tool can get into all the good places that you want to get into. I prefer to do this kind of area first. It is faster, and it just makes for a better finish in the end, you will see why.

Now don't forget to do the inside cut outs of the pedal cages! It's all about the detail!



[ November 27, 2006, 07:30 AM: Message edited by: Ted Carl ]

Next, let's assume you have tried the dremel, but now you want to try your mouse.

The mouse is a much better tool overall than the wheel. It gets larger areas done. It keeps the polish moist longer, and it makes better bling. However, the wheel gets the heavy stuff done better, as it can remove stuff in concentrated areas.

Here is the magic trick. A 3M white scotch brite pad. Now I am going to tell you that the ones I use are industrial, and are softer than the ones that come with the mouse polishing kit, and thicker, denser, and softer than the ones you find at Menard's. BUT the ones you can get over the counter are sufficient for this project. The rest comes later.



Cut them into strips and stick them to the velcro tip sander like this.

Now you can see that this covers more area, more better, or is it more gooder? When polishing the anodizing, it will not remove the color, but will remove all the oxidation from the surface. Even NOS parts are like night, and day, when you take the time to polish them before installation!

Here is a tip. Use the Dremel for the rivets to concentrate the polishing on them, and make them really bling, THEN use the mouse over the top of everything!

Again, keep it gooey and moist. And contact time is paramount.

Each time you wipe it off, and add more polish, and repeat, the shinier it will get!!!


Here is the really useful part of the Mouse! You can get into all kinds of areas, and even use the sides of the pad in the corners! The MOUSE IS PRICELESS! (Get it on the x-mas list!)


Now for clean up.

Use a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol or de-natured alcohol, and wet it down and wipe the big stuff off.

Wet a few q-tips with alcohol and wipe out all the holes.

Then, start to make use of all your backwards q-tips and run them into the holes and start cleaning them out. Hint, if you used 4 q-tips for polishing, you will use twice that for cleaning it up!

Then wash your hands and get a fresh rag, and start doing the final clean up!



And what would be complete without a before and after.
Before....



After...



Now, give me some time to get some other things done. I have a project for a fellow member to do. It will be a super bling job, but I still can't get to it for a while. In between, I may go for the next level.

So let's try and keep the questions to the 101 class, and I will go to the advanced stuff as I find the tiime. For now, get the tools you need and start working with them as 101 homework.

You ain't ready for this yet.


But I will get you there if you want. Just be patient, I got a lot of stuff on my plate at the moment!

[ November 27, 2006, 07:32 AM: Message edited by: Ted Carl ]

BTW, if you want the pedals they will be up for auction very soon. Er, when I find the time to grease em up and assemble them. These were done strictly for the team...lol

One cap is missing though...

so how would i polish my yellow '99 p24 to that*bling* sheen?? wow! you rock,thx for the info!!pl

I'm signing up for this class!
I bought a bench grinder a few months ago and was looking in to getting a polishing wheel set for it. Is that too advanced for this class? I have the dremel. I won a mouse sander/polisher as a raffle prize 7 years ago. I only recall using it once. I assume this is too old for the tip attachments though.

I'm reporting for class too. I have both a Dremel and mouse sander as well.

I'll be following this thread....

Me too, the mouse sander is now on the xmas list, the dremel is already and waiting with one of those bendy extension attachments as well!!

Cheers

Ted

Mouse sander = the new Elmo TMX.

Thanks Ted! I can't wait for the class to make my Tuf Neck look like that one!

Much needed! Thanks Ted, it's good to have a mentor!

Ted, your one nutty cat with some mad polishing skillz. Very impressive stuff and I look forward to following this thread. More importantly I am glad your local so I can just drop my stuff off and pick it up next day (j/k). Keep up the good work brutha...

Ted - You are a resto genius. As if Oxalic acid wasn't enough on steel restoration, now you want to revolutionise restoration of alloy. Good on you mate!

nicely done .. ive been using the dremel forever now and works great. The polishing wheels are a bit pricey but worth it. I use mothers polish and works great. The bling part is the best but a little more time and effort to do if you want results like this. You guys will enjoy the second class im sure.

here is 3 days worth of hand rubbing sanding and polishing! and thats just the stem

I think Ted deserves the term "Resto Guru" or something of the like by his name.

agreed. Thanks for this and all you write ups Ted.

Ted,

It is awesome that you are writing all of this up. This is exactly what these boards should be for. And I cant wait for the upper level classes.

Ted is the master of BMX HOW TO !

better still , there should be a READ ONLY TOPIC with tried and tested HOW TO topics on it so people can go there and read the way to do things .

like this thread , removing anodizing , removing rust from chrome ..ect...

we'll call it TEDS THREAD

Way cool! Thanks Ted!

I just got some cheap 7X's today that are kind of beat. They will be my sacrifice to the aluminum gods. I've only got a battery powered black n decker dremel, but I do have a mouse sander. The mouse sucks for woodworking I'm glad it will have a use now :-)

OK Guys......Who wants to change the pace?

Polishing 102. Mixed abrasive and non-abrasive polishing.

Today I am going to prep a bolt to fix my pro neck on my blue Sting that Pauly broke, and now won't let me hear the end of.

Okie dokie. New metal.

18-8 Stainless Steel.

This is a hardware store 18-8 bolt that I have drilled for a Pro-Neck (Drilling it is not a part of this class.). Who here thinks it looks like poo-poo? Everyone? Good. Me too!



Abrasive polishing is just as it sounds. You use abrasives to polish. It is not very technical, it just takes some practice and some know how, and a few tools and compounds.

It is based on using coarser abrasives and progressing to finer abrasives. Simple. However, If you think that you need to spend hours going from grit, to grit, to grit, to achieve a polish on a very hard stainless steel surface, you are about to be proven wrong.

The big deal in this lesson, is going to be the standard from here on out. When using abrasives, the whole trick to a good finish is "Keeping things straight". Flat, Smooth, and Straight! We never want a distorted reflection! A good mirror is a flat mirror!!!!

Step one will be to sand the part smooth with a belt sander and (somewhat worn) 80 grit paper/belt. First sand the top like this. Rotate the part and understand that as you sand it down it grips the belt better, and tires harder to depart from your grip. It also tries to rotate. You must keep it flat, and try to distribute the sanding pressure evenly. ROTATE the part a few times as you work.



Then do the sides. The bolt has a convenient handle to hold it with. Lay it on flat, use both hands to steady it and don't let the sanding angle change from laying flat. Keep the flats nice and square.



When you are done sanding there should be only one nice flat surface on each side, and the surface should have a texture like this.


Now for the next tool on the list.

A 3M Scotch-brite wheel grade 8A or so, and a high speed grinder to turn it. As you will see this is priceless for polishing. The wheel will probably cost more than the grinder. They last a long tme and save hours of work. They are hard, but soft..., fuzzy but gritty... Choose a grinder that turns the wheel at 3450 RPM. It works faster and smoother.

The same rules apply to these wheels as others. Notable rotate the part WITH the direction of rotation.

Rotate the part to get the edges like this.


The top is easy to keep flat, just spin it in circles.

The sides are the trick to keep straight. Simply hold the parts with the flats straight up. Move your hands in a circular motion, about one round per second. The wheel only touches the part at the 90 degree point. When you near the top and bottom edges of your part, as you are moving it in a vertical circle, you will hear the change in the sound of the wheel fuzz nipping at the edges. Just keep the circle the size that makes that sound on the top and bottom. This will remove all the big scratches from the 80 grit belt sanding.


[ December 02, 2006, 06:33 AM: Message edited by: Ted Carl ]

When you are done here, your finish will look like this....



Now when you part looks like this it is time to move down to the next step of abrasives.You need a polishing wheel. Generally speaking I will preach this wisdom; Flat parts, flat tools. Round parts, round tools.

In this case, the metal is hard, and the flats are small, so a wheel works fastest, and can be controlled adequately. This is not true on most aluminum parts, but I'll save that for a later item.
Choose a wheel that is firm for metals. See how this wheel is sewn to the edge of it. The ones that are soft and fluffy are for plastic and stuff.

Choose a compound for " hard metal, removing defects, in this step. Not the most aggressive, but somewhere in the middle of the scheme of things. put some stuff on and do the exact same thing you did on the 3M wheel.


The finish you get from this should look like this. You will notice I have left a blemish from the get go, so you can follow it, and see why it has to be done right, and all the damage has to be gone, from step one. Besides, the wedge bolt goes there anyway....lol.


If you think we are going to stop here, you are nuts....

Now, if you want to you can add some milder polish to the wheel, and get it just a smidge shinier.

Here is where we trasition to Non-Abrasive Polish. Again, Met-All is being used.

Same tools. Same plan. Goop it up. Turn your mouse pad to a fresh side, and go to town. As long as the mouse is leaving swirls on the surface while you are polishing, it is still working.

Do this at least 4 times. Goop, and polish, goop and polish. Each time polish until you think it should be good, then do it again....6 times is better, but 4 is what I did here.

And what do we have to show for 1/2 hours labor time? (and 2 hours typing time, sheesh!, lol)


And I like this one, it looks like the surface of Jupiter, complete with an eye of a storm (the pit). Or a nebula being swallowed by a black hole. Or like liquid Mercury oozing over the top and down the sides......


And here we are again....at the

BEFORE....



AFTER 30 minutes of a labor of love. (Or a disease????)


Cheers!
T

[ December 02, 2006, 06:43 AM: Message edited by: Ted Carl ]

Stunning Ted. How could you bring yourself to touch that with a spanner!!!???

Because you remove a smidge of material, you can now use a 6 point socket with a thin cotton cloth inside it.

Here is one source for 3M wheels. I deal with MSC frequently. Their price isn't always the cheapest, but they always have same day shipping, and I have never ever had a problem with them.

I lied, I am using a grade 8 medium density silicon carbide grit wheel.

8s-med

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXN...PMT4NO=15014995

$60.49 for the wheel. 29.95 for the 3450 RPM grinder. but the investment is well worth it for our purposes.

quote:

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Today I am going to prep a bolt to fix my pro neck on my blue Sting that Pauly broke.

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So what is this going to cost me? LOL