Al polishng - everything turns wheel black?

[DoctorZaius]

Car trim, sanded 220, 320, 400, 600...then 4" spiral sewn wheel with a 2500 RPM drill, and black compound. Al turns hazy to shine and turns my wheel black.

OK, cleaned the buffed Al with water & a towel...New wheel with brown...the wheel turns BLACK.

In fact, the wheel picks up a shiney (almost silvery) black look right away with either black or brown. Is this normal? I am raking every few minutes.

BTW, nice results but lots of tiny, tiny scratches and some haze, unless I sit the wheel on a one inch area for 30 seconds and press hard till I smell something heating up (Al part hot to touch).

This is hard to get perfect!!!!!! Dang!

[CarWiz]

LOL... Yeah, the black is normal. It's fine metal particles. When you see the silvery-black shine on the buff, add more compound to the buff and keep polishing the heavy scratches out. Let the compound do the work. That's the "color" you're ultimately after on the buff but too soon for now. The course compound and sewn buff you're using will leave a haze (fine scratches). After you have the heavy scratches out and the surface is even, switch to white compound and a loose buff. Same silvery-black will appear on the buff but the part should start to mirror instead of haze. Again, let the compound work and ease up on pressure. Keep applying compound to the buff. When you get the shine you want, a light touch of the buff to finish off should give you the "color" of the metal. You could even go to the blue compound and a soft buff if you're still seeing compound lines. Soft metals take a soft touch.

[smooth72]

yes if you don't have black residue everywhere you are not a polisher.
Seriously you need to watch the residue on the floor, if you track it inside onto the carpet the wifey will get upset, speaking from experience.
Have you read this,Introduction To Buffing and Polishing - Caswell Inc. pay attention to the cut stoke versus the polish. I remembered when I first got into polishing I mounted the drill in a vice, I think you will find it easier to use like a bench polisher.