What is the best way to polish steel?

[steelvision]

I need to polish a steel motorcycle frame for plating. I have polished aluminum and others with no prob but what is the best approach to polishing steel? What methods and products will get me the job done the quickest/most efficiently/cheapest?
I was going to build a vibratory tumbler to do it but it was going to cost more than $500 to cover half of it in ceramic triangles then plastic etc. so thats not cost effective unless I get a couple a month to do.

[jrow]

Re: What is the best way to polish steel?

steelvision,

Basically you polish steel the same way you polish aluminum! You may have to use a Sisal wheel with black to start with because of the hardness of the steel verses the aluminum.

John

[steelvision]

Re: What is the best way to polish steel?

John,
as far as sanding before sisal, would you think sanblast then sisal or greasless followed by sisal and if so what starting grit and ending grit? At what point is the greaseless finer than the sisal/emery combination. I dont mind putting in the work I just dont want to spend weeks of unnecessary work on it.
Thanks
Zonker

[pickleboy]

Re: What is the best way to polish steel?

if you sandblast to clean then i would start off grinding any weld seams that you want to dress up the move to 120 grit greaseless back to 80 only if needed. then 220, then 320, then 400 greasless. at this point the sisal and black is good. then spiral black, if needed. i would not go further than this since the plating will fill small imperfections.

[mpierich]

Re: What is the best way to polish steel?

John,
as far as sanding before sisal, would you think sanblast then sisal or greasless followed by sisal and if so what starting grit and ending grit? At what point is the greaseless finer than the sisal/emery combination. I dont mind putting in the work I just dont want to spend weeks of unnecessary work on it.
Thanks
Zonker

If you're having someone else plate it, ask them how they want it prepped. (I guess if you were plating it yourself, you would know already!). I'm pretty sure they want some tooth on there but the plating guys will know more. In fact you might want to post over in that forum.

I doubt that blasting would help, unless the frame needs to be cleaned. It won't do anything for the scratches - in fact real aggressive blasting might just make more work for you.

<<At what point is the greaseless finer than the sisal/emery combination.>>

I've only seen greasless up to 320 or so - definitely not finer than a sisal/emery finish.

If there's one thing I've learned over the past few years, it's that words like "fast", "easy", and "shortcut" simply don't apply to polishing (not a comment about your post, just a fact).

[jrow]

Re: What is the best way to polish steel?

steelvision,

In addition to what mpierich and pickleboy stated. Again check with your platter and see how he wants the metal prepped. You may be able to get away with just using a fine rotary wire brush and smoothing things out.

What kind of platting are you plan on having done?

John