black and brown bars????

[cgworth]

i purchased an aluminum polishing kit and it came with black and brown bars. i dont know how to use this stuff. i let my air grinder with polishing wheels spin up and then run it over the bar to get it on the wheels and spirals, then i tried to rub the bars on the part. none of this works very well , and makes one hell of a mess. how do i use this do i melt it down first?

[fxstcguy98]

The black bar is emory and it will be used to do most of the initial polishing using a cut motion(against the spin) then a color motion (with the spin). Once it is polished out, switch to the brown to get the part brighter. Put it on the wheel by running the wheel and putting the bar up against the wheel for a second or two. You don't need alot on the wheel, but you will need to put it on often. I suggest you download and read the free buffing and polishing manual on the Caswell site, then practic, practic, practic and bone up on patience you will need alot of it.

[skiddz]

That air grinder may be spinning a bit too fast to get compound to load properly. The friction between the wheel and the compound melts the compound and deposits it on the wheel. If the surface of the wheel is going too fast, the compound may just fly off from centrifugal force.

You might try "pulsing" the grinder on and off as you apply compound. It would be a very good idea to read the online "manual" to get an idea of what you're up against. Once you get the wheels loaded, practice, practice, and patience will be your best method of obtaining good results.

Prep is key to a mirror-like shine.. Some parts you can hit immediately with the buffer - some you'll need to sand to remove imperfections and get smooth.

I sand parts up to 400 grit (Sometimes to 600) until they're as smooth and scratch free as I can make them. Only then do I begin to polish. I spend about 75% of my time on a part sanding. Only about 15% of my time is spent actually polishing. The last 10% is cleaning between steps, changing wheels/tools etc.

Good luck!

[cgworth]

how do i clean the pads? can i soak them ? or are they just lost

[skiddz]

You don't "clean" them really. You rake them to get all the crud off the faces once in a while. You can buy a rake specifically for the job, or go the cheap bastard route like I do and use long Sawz-All blades with the ends wrapped in duct tape. (for handles)

Rake the face of the wheel (as it's running) until all the crud is gone. Obviously, you'll remove some of the wheel too, but wheels are considered "consumables" - however, they'll last a pretty long time if you don't rake 'em each and every time.

Also, the "rule" is, one compound per wheel. Don't mix 'n match.. Also, keep the wheels you're not using covered up. As you buff, all kinds of junk is thrown into the air. You don't want this stuff settling on and contaminating your other wheels. I store all my wheels and buffs for a specific compound in their own boxes. Emery has it's own box, tripoli hos it's own box etc... It avoids cross contamination.

Also, don't mix wheels on your buffer for the same reason. If you're running sisal/emery on one side, and spiral/tripoli on the other, you're almost certain to cross contaminate the wheels as you polish. Using a drill, or a die grinder, this is pretty much a non-issue, but it's something to think about.

Again, read the online "How To Polish" manual.. It'll get you headed in the right direction.