I was originally going to use one of those electric hand sanders (the one that uses like 1/3 sheet of sandpaper) and work my way up to 100-200-400-600-800 grit (wet sand for the last two grits).
i also do this but be very careful as electricity and water dont mix well. i suggest a mist squirt bottle to wet the parts with.
For the buffing and polishing part, I had purchased a no load sander/polisher from Harbor Freight that is supposed to spin a 2600/3300 rpm. Pretty much this one
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90820 that will work fairly well
But I am not sure how buffing/polishing wheels are suppose to fit on there. It came with a 7" head for the polishing bonnet (kind of like a shower cap).
this is the adapter you need to use.that polisher uses the same spindle threads as a grinder. http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/grinderadapter.html
Then I was going to use an electric hand drill, because I've seen the buffing wheels made for hand drill, but could not find one that seemed to be able to spin enough rpm (as recommended here). The fastest I've seen spins at 3000 rpm.
this will work ok for the tight spots with mushroom buffs and felt bobs.
So, then I was thinking about an angle grinder with the adapter piece sold here. But the ones I've seen online spin about 10,000 rpm or more. Will that be too fast?
this idea will work but with that speed and the fact that you are not real experienced it can be dangerous as well as easy to mess the wheels up. i would stick with the polisher and a little more time.
I was thinking about using the grinder to sand the wheels down, but couldn't find the appropriate grit (listed above) to do the job. Do they make wheels for an angle grinder is those grits?
no most sandpaper that will work on grinders will only go as fine as 240 or maybe 320 grit
So, what would you use? The sander/polisher, the 3000 rpm drill or an angle grinder?
i would get the drill and the polisher both since the polisher will work great on the big areas but not the small tight areas and that is where the drill will work out great.
The next thing is, I'm not really sure which buffing/polishing wheels to purchase. I can figure out the sissal wheel/cotton wheel part (I think), ?
i do not use sisal on aluminum myself. i would recommend vented treated wheels in the 8" size. this will give you about 6000 sfm on the polisher. use this with the emory bar, and work till it is almost as shiney as you want. then switch to a 8" spiral sewn and the white bar. this should give you the shine you are looking for. if not the get a second spiral sewn and use the red bar for the final shine.
but my question is more along the lines of "do I need a different wheel if mounted on a drill versus sander/polisher versus to an angle grinder?" and then how do they mount on it?
no the wheels are the same as long as they aree sized right. they mount with a 1/2 bolt on the adapter that i recommended so when ordering the wheels ask for 1/2" arbor holes.
So, basically the question are:
Thanks again, tons of simple questions. More to come, I'm sure.
-Nick