Polishing Questions

[250R_Honda]

I recently purchased the polishing kit from Caswell for Aluminum. I used a die grinder with about 26,000 rpm. First off I had trouble getting the block of compound onto the wheel. It seemed to just decinegrate when I ran the wheel up to it. I set it out in the sun and that seemed to help alittle, but there still wasnt much compound on the wheel. Also, I couldn't get the aluminum to show any results. It honestly didn't look any different from when I started. I used the black compound with the rope like wheel. Does anyone have any tips? Is the grinder fast enough? I really appreciate any help, I want to get my bike done for the sand dunes during Thanksgiving!!!
Shane

[whistule]

I would say it depends what diameter of polishing wheel you are using.

[mcaswell]

The kit is designed for use with an electric drill. I doubt the die grinder is powerful enough the spin 4" wheels effectively.

[warchild]

The Aluminum mite have an Anodizing layer on it.

[whistule]

Check out the caswell buffbook - it explains the key thing is surface ft per minute and gives you the calculations for rpm. You can also check out this chart >> http://www.buffpolishgrind.com/techi...acefootage.htm

Assuming you are using 4 in" wheel then you are looking for something between 4000 and 7000 rpm. In other words your polishing wheel is currently going too fast and is unlikely to have enough power so when you apply the compound you can't apply enough pressure to melt the compound without the wheel stopping.

Alternatively maybe try 1 or 2" polishing wheel which will have the benefit of getting into smaller spaces but it will longer to polish bigger areas as the surface area of the wheel touching the part is less. I have not tried this so I couldn't comment on how successfull this would be but maybe someone else who has tried this can help?

[250R_Honda]

The wheels are 4". I didn't think an electric drill would be fast enough to do any good. What speed am I looking for from a drill and how much horsepower should it have? Also, if I dropped the size of the wheel, that would be worse wouldnt it? I would have less surface feet per minute. Thanks for everyones help!

[skiddz]

I run 4" wheels on a Makita 1/2" drill and sometimes stack two wheels together. It's right on the edge of not having enough "oomph" when I really go to town with the sisal wheel, but so far it's doing the trick.

I'm sure I'll be replacing the output bearing on the drill soon as I doubt Makita figured on extreme side loads for extended periods of time when they designed it.

Wish I had a 1hp buffer with some seriously long shafts tho...