polishing completely by hand

[saiyan7]

Here\'s a new one fellas. I have just been given a bunch of aluminum Harley Davidson parts and I don\'t have access to my bench wheel or any of my electric tools, just sandpaper, compounds, and polish. What are your thoughts as to the quickest way to polish without the use of electricity. I was thinking that I would wet sand up to a 1500 grit paper and use FLITZ from there, but that didn\'t turn out too nice. Any ideas?

[mcaswell]

Re: polishing completely by hand

Suggestion: go buy a handheld buffer!!

Wow - it\'s going to take you a long time to buff those by hand. Hope you have strong arms.

[saiyan7]

Re: polishing completely by hand

by handheld buffer, you mean....?? you\'re not speaking of a high speed vibrating handheld, right? I have one of those, but it\'s no good for let\'s say a Harley transmission transfer case. I guess I should just bite the bullet and buy a very high speed drill to accomodate the smaller wheels for tight spots, but those things are so darn expensive. On top of that you guys don\'t sell one. If you remember correctly, I already bought the handheld polisher but that doesn\'t work so good for small loose pieces. Any other Ideas?

[mcaswell]

Re: polishing completely by hand

Don\'t you have a regular drill?

That will work fine with 4\" wheels and an arbor adapter.

[saiyan7]

Re: polishing completely by hand

Yeah, I do but it only spins at 1200 rpm and with a 4\" wheel that\'s kinda slow. Plus I don\'t have any of your wheels for my drill yet. I only have cheesy Home Depot wheels. They break their flimsy drive shaft right away. Time for another Caswell purchase right.

[mcaswell]

Re: polishing completely by hand

1200 RPM should be sufficient...not the best, but certainly better than polishing by hand!

Check out http://www.caswellplating.com/alpolkit.htm

[saiyan7]

Re: polishing completely by hand

I have a ton of your compounds, but I do plan to purchase your 4\" wheels. Thanks again for your help.

[mcaswell]

Re: polishing completely by hand

Don\'t forget the arbor adapter, so you can mount the wheels on a drill.

[kirkacs1998]

Polishing completely by hand.

I can suggest that you continue the process with a micromesh kit. These are used to polish plastic by hand. The sandpaper continues up to 12,000
grit(yes,really). Try inquiring at aviation supply stores. Lee-Valley carries it too, I think. If you have one near you

[mcaswell]

Micromesh Kit

Is this what you mean by a Micromesh kit?

We don't stock these, but I think we will. It looks like a good addition to our arsenal.

[kirkacs1998]

That is exactly what I mean by "micromesh kit".

[L98-Z]

just wanted to throw in Lowes at one time (within last 6 months) sold a Skil Drill that turned 2500-2600 RPM for around 20.00.

I've got the receipt downstairs, and I'll double check the RPMs. Anything has got to be better than 1200 right?