Polishing stainless steel MC exhaust mid pipes

[kevinw1961]

I'm putting a new exhaust on a bike and would like to polish the mid-pipes first. I have absolutely no experience with polishing anything. I read the buffing manual and it was very informative. I plan to wet sand to 1500 before starting to polish. I have access to a lathe at work and plan to mount buffing wheels to this. Any additional tips and guidance would sincerely be appreciated. Especially with selection of compounds and wheels? Such as - should I use the green compound or stick with the white compounds listed on the stainless steel page? What is the difference between the "plys" on the Spiral Sewn Cotton Wheels? Size selection of buffing wheels? Thanks!

[pickleboy]

first off sorry for being long winded but it may save a lot of ?'s back and forth. my experience with s.s. is limited but maybe insightful. first are the pipes are new? or scratched up?, i assume not brand new as you intend to sand them or is this just because of the mill finish?. second the lathe is a good idea in that the speed selection is broad. find a wheel that you are comfortable with that will not allow the pipe to contact the spinning chuck. as for compound if the pipes are new then all you should need is the green and white. if they are scratched then start with black i recommend the vented wheel as i am haveing great luck with them. if this is still not as good a shine as you want then move from white to red then blue. make sure to coat with some sort of polish till time to install so fingerprints dont discolor the great finish you put on those bad boys . please post pics if possible so we can all see. also there are some on this forum that may dispute my recommendations and rightfully so as i said my s.s. exp. is limited.

[sswee]

Plys are the layers of material put together. The more plys, the thicker the wheels.
The lathe and the setup you put together will make the difference on how well it will work. A slip with the pipe into a chuck or chuck jaw may hurt or kill the part or you, maybe both. If your using a lathe, go with the largest wheels so you can get the SFPM you need without running the machine maxed out. A cheap 6" bench grinder with 6" wheels works decent on alot of things.
If you sand to 1500, you'll probably just use the green and white. If they are not too bad a shape, like pickelboy said start with black and work up
Best of luck. SS

[kevinw1961]

Thanks for your help! I have one pipe finished and can't wait to start on the other. I was really impressed with the way the pipe turned out. I think I'll skip sanding the next pipe and just polish out. I posted a few pic's.