dremel polishing....

[tweak]

i cant gert the damn thing to polish.... i have a 1in cottom wheel and some felt buffs and all it does is kinda shine it up.... im using it on the 6th setting and with white compound.... i use the white with my buffing wheel....

what do you guys do?

[alabama_lowlife]

what are you trying to polish? unless it's already nearly at a polished finish, the white compound alone will not get it there. depending on the condition of the part, there could be many many steps up to and including sanding with 36 grit sandpaper. at the very least, using emory will likely be required.

[tweak]

i sand it completely smooth up to 360 grit. i only use white buffing compound on the buffing wheel and it polishes it well.




this corner and on the top of the intake is where im having problems



i think it may just be the aluminum, i tried the dremel on a waterpump cover and it seemed to work well.... and i noticed it takes a little longer to buff the flat sides with the buffer than it does other aluminum parts stuff ive done...most things i do will shine within a couple seconds, but this takes longer.... even if i try red rouge.

any ideas what to do?

[alabama_lowlife]

try some emory or go over it with a cratex and then try emory.

[Rasper]

I never stop at 360 grit. I use 400 and then emery on stainless, and on aluminum, since it's so easy to sand, I go way up, to sometimes 1000. Then I start with tripoli, which is 1200. Some alum. seems to not like tripoli, but most does okay. To go from 360 to white is just too big of a jump. It would take forever to get the 360 scratches out with white compound on a Dremel.

Richard

[tweak]

well all the deep spots i used a nylon abrasive point... i went from coarse-med-fine..... so im cant tell for shure what grit it is, but thats the highest i can go for the tiny spot it is...

i have 400grit sandpaper i just cant get it in there


what color rouge should i try then? black

i have a bar of redishbrown stuff, but i can pick something up tho if it will work better

[Rasper]

Most emery is black. I think emery is about 800 grit. I've never used it on aluminum, but I would guess it will cut it down nice and fast. The key thing is: with each step, you absolutely must get out all of the scratches left by the previous abrasive before you move up to a finer abrasive.

That's a mighty big part to polish with a Dremel. It would make life a lot easier for you if you got one of Caswell's buffing kits that you use with an electric drill. Or if this is all you plan to polish, you can buy a mandrel to fit a drill chuck and a couple of buffs for less than 20 dollars.

Richard

[Rasper]

I just looked in Caswell's catalog on line.


They have an arbor kit (part number ARBKIT12) for $15.32. Comes with 6 buffs and the arbor. Save a lot of time and labor.

Richard

[tweak]

a 4in wheel wont even fit in there where i need it to.....


and there are no deep scratches in there, it just wont polish


i know how to polish, i just cant get the damn dremel to work like my buffer

[jrow]

Originally Posted by tweak

a 4in wheel wont even fit in there where i need it to.....

and there are no deep scratches in there, it just wont polish

i know how to polish, i just cant get the damn dremel to work like my buffer

First off what wheel are you using in your Dremel?
If you have a drill motor you can get felt buffs for that. The buffs would have a 1/4" shank. It sounds to me like you are not getting the aluminum hot enough for the compound to polish. It's not the aluminum because you polished some of it with no problem.
The polishing grits by coarseness to fine are Emory, Stainless Steel, Tripoli and White. I would try some 1" treated or untreated buffs. After some use they will get into the area that you are trying to polish. The reddish-brown compound you have is more and likely Tripoli. Try that first and then use the white. It's hard to tell the size of inside area you are trying to polish. Another suggestion would be a 1" facer buff!
Tip: If you use a drill motor tape the chuck with duct tape so it won't scratch the aluminum if you happen to slip!