Re: stainless trim polishing taking forever..
A couple of things:
Spiral sewn wheels aren't manly enough to use for the first stage of buffing on stainless. That's a guaranteed time extender. You're headed in the right direction by having ordered sisal wheels.
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I've found that the amount of compound that I use and the duration of time that I allow to pass before replenishing the wheel with compound is apples and oranges between aluminum and stainless. With stainless, I replenish the wheel every 10 seconds. Yes, every...ten...seconds. Only viable explanation that I've been able to come up with as to why compound lasts longer in between replenishing sessions on aluminum is that aluminum is excellent at dispersing heat. Stainless on the other hand is a good reflector of heat. (Which is why it's such a popular choice for exhaust components: holds heat inside pipes better.) Heat is what consumes compound, so it seems logical that the compound is going to get burned up quicker by the part that reflects the heat back at it vs. the part that the heat "flows" through.
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What are you using for power on your buffing wheels? What size wheels are you using? You're going to have a significantly harder time buffing out scratches if you're using a die grinder/electric drill and a 4" wheel as opposed to a bench grinder and an 8" or 10" wheel. I have Caswell's 2hp buffing machine, (from when they used to still sell it), and I have to say that judging by the effort that I've had to put into polishing stainless using THAT motor, using anything less than at least a 3/4hp motor would take a certified miracle to make the finish come out right. Stainless likes to be LEANED on, if you get my drift.
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In my personal experience with stainless, I've had the highest degree of success by using 3 wheels instead of two: sisal/black, spiral/white, loose/white. You can achieve excellent optical clarity from a head on viewpoint with the spiral/white, but it still seems to leave that "halo effect" you get from looking at the metal from an angle and focusing on the point where light hits it. Loose/white seems to help in minimizing this.
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