Polishing a Set of Aluminum Wheels...Newbie Detailed Questions

[mpierich]

Originally Posted by chromo

"For those of us without a lathe:"

Ya, lots of ways to do many things if your creative in thinking.
I needed a large 1/4" round steel disk with mounting holes, I drilled the mounting holes after rough cutting the disk, then mounted the disk on a car hub, grinder under it, got a perfect disk

Must say I did not think of doing that myself, saw something similar on a forum and adapted the idea to what I needed.

Now I like that one...

I needed a "beauty ring" around the gas cap bung on my Sportster to keep my new paint job from lifting...they go for $20 - $50 in the catalogs. I took out my trusty $8 hole saw and cut one out of an old aluminum highway sign, ground it smooth and polished it, voila. Of course it pays to have room to never throw anyhting away, like old highway signs. I made a seat pan out of another part of that sign...

[JAP_NDN]

I notice that Caswell seems to only recommend the 3450rpm buffer for metal and the 1100rpm for plastic. Another site (Brightworks) says, "For polishing on soft, as well as hard metals, make sure to get the 1800 RPM buffer.
If you are only polishing hard metals such as stainless steel you may need the 3600 RPM." I bought the 3450rpm buffer from Caswell and it seems to work fine. I do wonder, though, if a lower rpm buffer would be better. BTW, I'm using 8" wheels. What speed should I be using to polish aluminum? or SS? Thanks in advance.

[mpierich]

The 3450 with 8" wheel is correct, according to Caswell's generalized formula. I have a theory that for final coloring on aluminum, slower would be better but I haven't really tested the theory properly as of yet. Ideally a dual-speed machine should be used. In the meantime, when I have the opportunity I'm going to try 4" wheels, which will greatly reduce the surface speed (and have apporoximately the same effect as slowing down the wheel).

[JAP_NDN]

Originally Posted by mpierich

The 3450 with 8" wheel is correct, according to Caswell's generalized formula. I have a theory that for final coloring on aluminum, slower would be better but I haven't really tested the theory properly as of yet. Ideally a dual-speed machine should be used. In the meantime, when I have the opportunity I'm going to try 4" wheels, which will greatly reduce the surface speed (and have apporoximately the same effect as slowing down the wheel).

Thanks for your help (once again).