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Polishing aluminum

G

Geo Fry

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2006
Messages
483
What is the best way to polish aluminum to a near mirror finish? like how fine do i need to sand it? what should i use to buff it with? what kind of polishing compound should I use?

Thanks Geo
 
Geo Fry said:
What is the best way to polish aluminum to a near mirror finish? like how fine do i need to sand it? what should i use to buff it with? what kind of polishing compound should I use?

Thanks Geo
Click to expand...

You're going to want to go pick up sand paper ranging in grit from 600-2000. I found 600 and 800 at the hardware store, but you'll have to go to an automotive parts store (Pepboys) to find the higher grits. Typically you'll get 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000. You should be able to find several guides on wet-sanding, which is what you'll need to do to get that fine near mirror finish. Basically keeping your surface wet, making passes back and forth in one direction, then turning your peice and doint it in the perpendicular and diagonal directions.

You keep doing this over and over and over again. When it's all done, you can pick up 2 more things. A polishing compound and a finishing compound (I believe that's what it's called). One is basically liquid sandpaper, it's equivalent to about 3000+ grit sandpaper. The other compound is what gives the final shine and polish to your surface.

If you do a quick google search on wet-sanding you should find a much more detailed guide.
 
OK awesome!! I found a few how to's by googling and the general idea is to make sure the sanding is nice and even before you polish.

Thanks for the quick reply :D
 
I took the face from my ATC Coolermaster, looks like the Preatorian, and sanded and polished and polished and sanded and was never able to get it to a mirror finish. It's very close, but scratches are apparent and are caused even easier. If I even run my fingernail across it, it makes a mark. I think the next step is to seal it somehow. Oh, btw, I went all the way up to wet sanding 2000 grit, and then aluminum polish, but scratches remain. Good luck and if you get good results you should post pics!
 
OK... I just have three sheets I am going to polish and they are for a custom case I am building. I am a little worried about it being so easily blemished so I might give it a few layers of semi-gloss clear lacquer. Is this a bad idea, or is there a better alternative?

I will post pics of my results when finished
 
a clear-coat after you are all done might not be a bad idea. I know that's what you do for mirror quality paint jobs, I don't see why it wouldn't work on bare metal.
 
the only thing i'm worried about is the clear lacquer sticking to the polished surface. Don't painted surfaces need to be slightly rough for the paint to adhere, or am I mistaken?
 
Just did a quick google search

read here:

http://www.nomma.org/support/finishing/Aluminum Polishing/Aluminum Polishing.html

http://www.automedia.com/Awesome/Anodizing/res20040701aa/1

If you said you had three sheets of sandpaper...you're gonna need a bit more, alot more actually. When you sand with really fine sandpaper, it doesn't last that long. The best way is to wet-sand. That way you can sorta rinse the paper on get more life out of it. Don't make the mistake of believing that this is gonna be a quick project. It takes a lot of work to get aluminum looking that shiny. But it's worth it, looks great.
 
Rhentno said:
If you said you had three sheets of sandpaper...you're gonna need a bit more, alot more actually.
Click to expand...

No no... not 3 sheets of sand paper, 3 sheets of aluminum I wanted to polish. :)

Anyways I got a little progress with one peice that I have ready.

Here is the before:
sidepanel2.jpg

which was semi-reflective to begin with


And this is after wet sanding with 1000grit auto sandpaper and one time through polishing compound:
sidepanel3.jpg


I'm going to try polishing compound a few more times... but I might need 1500 or 2000 grit to get any more... although I'm not looking for a mirror. What I have now is pretty close to what I want ;)

Geo
 
Geo Fry said:
And this is after wet sanding with 1000grit auto sandpaper and one time through polishing compound:

I'm going to try polishing compound a few more times... but I might need 1500 or 2000 grit to get any more... although I'm not looking for a mirror. What I have now is pretty close to what I want ;)

Geo
Click to expand...

Your polishing compound won't get you anymore shine. You've got to go up to 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper. Then once you've gone through those once, start over and go from 800-2000 all over again, and then again one more time.


You've got to give it a full wet sanding treatment 2-3 times up to 2000 grit to get that real mirror finish. THEN use your polishing compound as the very last step. That should only really need one application.
 
yea but at the moment i have nothing higher than 1000grit and hardware stored are closed.
I went ahead and used some polishing compound 2 more times and got a little better result. Theoretically polishing compound can make a difference if used more than once since it does have abrasives in it.

Here's a pic of that
alumpolish.jpg


You cant really see it in the pic but the reflection is alot more even, and a few more details can be seen in the reflection... but yes I agree if I wanted more, I would need to go with a higher grit.
 
Would using random orbital sanders to do sanding in these high grits work or would that be disastrous?
 
I'm pretty sure that would leave lots of swirl marks... the general idea is to go up and down, then left to right, then diagonal both ways to get rid of the grain of the metal. To buff the metal once it has been sanded, you can use an orbital buffer tho.

honestly I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I dont think I'd want an honest mirror finish... although I dont really know that since it hasn't got there yet. but all in all it has a nice finish to it thus far
 
jreffy said:
Your polishing compound won't get you anymore shine. You've got to go up to 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper. Then once you've gone through those once, start over and go from 800-2000 all over again, and then again one more time.


You've got to give it a full wet sanding treatment 2-3 times up to 2000 grit to get that real mirror finish. THEN use your polishing compound as the very last step. That should only really need one application.
Click to expand...
^^^ - QFT
 
jreffy said:
You're going to want to go pick up sand paper ranging in grit from 600-2000. I found 600 and 800 at the hardware store, but you'll have to go to an automotive parts store (Pepboys) to find the higher grits.
Click to expand...

Or the Walmart automotive department...
 
aburgard said:
Or the Walmart automotive department...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it took me a while to find it, but they do have it in the automotive department... along with some cool paint's too!
 
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