Polishing Stuff

[Guest]

So since I'm on spring break and I can't my tires replaced for like two damn weeks and since I sold my Shadow on Friday i felt i need to be productive in some measure. So naturally the wifes part bike became my test subject. I've never polished aluminum and decided to give it a try. After stopping by Harbor Fright and picking up some cheap wheels and grey and white compound i went to town. How much compound should I use and how do I tell once a wheel is used up? They turn straight black right off the bat and I have no idea what a used up one looks like... Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the fins relatively easily without breaking out the tiny as brushes? I'm thinking maybe my dremmel? Also, those damn spark plug areas...?That seems hardcore OCD to me though. I'm planning to keep the bike long term so it's going to be slowly overhauled. Next winter I'm planning on tearing it down for painting and redo the wiring.

[posplayr]

[Steve]

You are polishing the engine???

'Cleaning' I can understand, but polishing?

Sorry, even I don't do that, and I polish a LOT of 'useless' stuff.

To address some of your other questions:
- Yes, the wheel will turn black almost instantly.
- How much compound to apply? I have seen some people really goop it on, but I have found that it doesn't take all that much. You do have to load it up a bit on a fresh wheel, but after that, it does not take much at all.
- When is a wheel "used up"? That one is easy. If you are using a bench grinder, you start when an 8" wheel. When it gets down to abut 5", it is hard to get some parts around the wheel without hitting the grinder, so it's "used up". If you are using smaller wheels on a hand drill, good luck. You need a really high-speed drill. I use a Harbor Freight cheapy drill at about 3000 rpm, it does OK to touch up aluminum that has already been polished, but not so good to start from scratch.

The key to polishing is surface speed of the wheel against the work. A smaller wheel needs a higher speed.

One last thing to remember: do not mix different compounds on a wheel. If you start a wheel with gray polish, use ONLY gray polish on that wheel. Get a different wheel for the white polish. The edge of the wheel will turn black on all of them, but you don't want to mix the colors.

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[cowboyup3371]

Here are some pictures of Steve's "useless" polishing. I would have had these up last night but Photobucket was being temperamental

Some of the cleaning he does



On the buffing wheel



Bowls in comparison from untouched (left) to polished (right)



A fully polished carb set (almost all pieces)

[Steve]

Here are some pictures of Steve's "useless" polishing.

Those aren't the "useless" pieces.

THESE are the "useless" pieces:











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[Sam 78 GS750]

Steve, how do you get in all the cracks and crevices so well? I'm trying my hand at polishing for the first time as well. Polished a few engine cases with decent results, but either burn the piece or get polish hard and caked in the crevices. I only use a small amount but maybe am still using too much. I tried using a dremel to get into the tight places, but had to redo those pieces. When I was done you could see where i used the dremel instead of the big wheel...

[Pb9717]

http://www.caswellcanada.ca/shop/userfiles/buffing%20booklet(1).pdf

everything you need to know is above. Great link from a manufacturer of polishing gear. 18 page booklet.

Enjoy.

[ExcelDominus]

Thanks for the link!

[Steve]

Steve, how do you get in all the cracks and crevices so well?

For the stuff shown there, I used a spiral-sewn wheel on my bench grinder. I just move the parts around to attack the cracks and crevices from different angles, eventually it looks OK.

For some of the small areas that the large wheel won't reach, I use some small felt bobs in the Dremel, then go over the whole area with the large wheel.

Click HERE to see some other shiny bits.

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[80GS850GBob]

Ok...cam caps could be deemed semi useless...otherwise the rest is fine.

I mark my wheels per the polish I used on them.....my polishing at work is of a higher order though-lol. {church related items- candle holders, communion holders, chalices, brass shrine pieces...I'm a maintenance custodian for our parish and alot of these things haven't seen any kind of polishing in over 30+ years}

...what's the best sisal wheel to get for 1st roughing on heavily pitted things?...all I've got for now is 6" sewn and loose wheels {black/brown/white/green HF grit sticks}

[80GS850GBob]

Those aren't the "useless" pieces.





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Now without trying to start WW3...why did you go to the effort to polish these so nicely and yet not sand the tool marks off of that brass elbow before polishing?

[80GS850GBob]

So since I'm on spring break and I can't my tires replaced for like two damn weeks and since I sold my Shadow on Friday i felt i need to be productive in some measure. So naturally the wifes part bike became my test subject. I've never polished aluminum and decided to give it a try. After stopping by Harbor Fright and picking up some cheap wheels and grey and white compound i went to town. How much compound should I use and how do I tell once a wheel is used up? They turn straight black right off the bat and I have no idea what a used up one looks like... Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the fins relatively easily without breaking out the tiny as brushes? I'm thinking maybe my dremmel? Also, those damn spark plug areas...?That seems hardcore OCD to me though. I'm planning to keep the bike long term so it's going to be slowly overhauled. Next winter I'm planning on tearing it down for painting and redo the wiring.

After 5-10min of use any wheel will get black no matter what compound your using....that's just normal. Me, I just run the compound stick across the spinning wheel...use it for 5min, then swipe again. If you over load it you'll get smudge on your work - that's a tell tail sign that you've added too much.
Once you get past the 1sr sewn circle on a sewn wheel...the wheel will get semi loose but that's ok too. It's still sewn on the rest of it but it just won't be as tight as 1st used {mind you, I'm using HF stuff....better grade wheels might be a better experience}.
I can tell you these simple things- 1st, if your gonna be there for a while, get a good working angle - my time is roughly half a day getting a 18" tall brass church candle holder done and it messes with my upper shoulders by the end of the day.
Wear gloves...the metal can get warm when your working it.
Watch your attack angle and swing...nothing worse than a part grabbing the wheel and flying!
As said earlier, mark your wheels per the compound you use with it {I use a permanent marker}.
I'd also add that as your wheels wear, they'll throw a lot of dust and strings at you...and your shop. Where work clothes and a mask wouldn't hurt either so you don't breath all that dust in.

[Steve]

Now without trying to start WW3...why did you go to the effort to polish these so nicely and yet not sand the tool marks off of that brass elbow before polishing?

Because the guy that owned that little piece of work sort of challenged me when I said that it only took a couple of minutes to polish.

I think that took less than three minutes, it started like this:


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[renobruce]

When it comes to polishing, there are no "useless" items!

[storm 64]

Very nice renobruce! I know them valve covers are time consuming and are hard to Polish! 👍