Metal Polishing – Making Shiny Things

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Mothers mag and aluminum polish – This stuff is like cheating, it’s that good! Get it at your local Auto parts store. Good on all metals and even puts a sheen on anodizing. MOTHERS 05101 Mag & Aluminum Polish Use very soft cloth to polish your pieces! when you polish to high levels, even rags will leave fine scratches in the surface.

Warning – Most pieces we have formed have some scratches in them when we start the polishing process. I’ve found out the hard way that it is better to use some courser sanding at first and get the metal down below the scratches. Sounds simple right? Courser sanding actually puts its own scratches in the surface and hides the scratches you are trying to remove. So you think you’ve got the scratches out and you progress through finer and finer sanding only to find that the scratches aren’t all gone. Go deeper at first and get it over with. This would be a good place to use a power sander and then go back to hand work when you start using finer cloths.

I spent a full week polishing this window frame, because I didn’t sand down far enough at first. Rinse and repeat, But when you finally get it right, you forget about all the effort that went into it.

While I’m sanding I rotate my pieces regularly so any bias in my sanding block hold will be evened out. Keep your surface wet and occasionally replace your water to remove possible grit from your pan. progress thru finer and finer grits, don’t spare the effort especially once you get to the final stages. When your almost done don’t push to hard on the sanding block, just glide it back and forth, it almost feels like your not doing anything. At the very end if possible, make all your strokes in the same direction.

Rinse off your project and you should have a slightly hazy reflection. If you think it’s good enough start polishing with the Mothers polish. Make multiple passes over all areas. Once I think I’ve got it good enough, I wipe it off with a clean rag and then run hot water over it in the sink or outside with the hose if it’s to big to fit. I do a final wipe of with a very soft dry rag and admire my handy work.

This EK emblem has polished Aluminum in the back and Copper in front to get contrast.

If you need to polish or sand anything round and you can put it on a drill? This can make quick work of a piece.

This was actually hilarious, I was having trouble getting the arbor tight enough and my drill stops rather abruptly. Every time I let off the trigger, the mass of the copper would just spin the arbor right off the treads. If you can’t laugh at yourself? you friends will do it for you!

Corsair 900D emblem