Need Help W/ Stainless Finishing

[mrbiggsy]

Purchased a stainless polishing kit and have been trying to bring up stainless flat bar to a mirror finish. I seem to have better luck with my variable speed grinder and sandpaper.

Even hand sanding a small area with 80, 120, 240, 320, 600 gets close to a mirror finish.

Using the white and green bars on my bench grinder don't seem to do much.
Using the white on the hand sanded area even dulls the metal.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong.

[pickleboy]

first off bro welcome to the forum. let me start off with this, stainless is a strange beast. its true you can get a good shine with sanding. i would then start off with a spiral wheel and emory. if you dont have that then use the green bar. the bench grinder you have is hopefully stout enough to put some decent pressure on the wheels without stalling it out. if so then work the stainless in a cut motion(refer to online buff manual). the part should get pretty warm, pretty fast, this is good. the secret to polishing is a combination of heat, wheel speed, and pressure. there is no scientific exacts so you have to find what works best for you. after the color starts to come up switch to a color only motion. then switch to the loose wheel and the white compound. do the same here as before. by the time you get to the color motion you should have a bright shine finish. be patient, i have been doing this for about a year and still have fits with stainless. also you might try to sand to a higher grit to start out with, say 1000-1200 grit then wheel the part. hope this helps bro. keep us posted.