new to polishing: questins

[mp459]

Hey there. I'm starting to polish bronze pieces from my boat. The bronze is textured so I do not expect to get a mirror finish, but at least something better than the brown.
i start by removing as much of the tarnish as I can--I use either Ketsup or Muriatic Acid for this. I have some questions on what happens next:
1) should I try to remove additional tarnish by hand before moving to the wheel?
2) how often should I apply compound to the wheel? I've read articles here that say just apply it for a second or two before you start working on your piece, but it does nto mention anything about repeat application halfway through a piece.
3) any ideas on cleaning out the "valleys" in the textured finish of the bronze? I've had decent success so far getting the bronze shiny but the shinier the "peaks" of the surface get, the more black the "valleys" look.

Any help would be appreciated.
mickey

[marsfrogie]

Chemically stripping the tarnish is probably not necessary. You should just use the buffing wheels from the start. You apply more compound if you see that it isn't cutting down the metal as efficiently. The only way to get rid of the valleys is to sand the top layer down to the same level as the bottom of the valleys. You can use greaseless compounds to do that. The black in the valleys is probably the buffing compounds being crammed into the crevices. Acetone or laquer thinner works well at removing compounds.

[mp459]

Thanks a lot, I'll try that. I do not want to remove the texture surface--just to polish it down in the crevices. I'll give acetone a try. Thanks again.
mickey

[chromo]

Depending on what you are reffering to as textures you could shape your wheel some to match.

We used to do that buffing range handles. They were sort of W shaped. High on the sides rolling into a low spot then rounded out in the middle.
Hard to describe any better. A flat wheel would not work on those type parts at all. So we shaped our wheels!

If you mean by texture that they have high and low areas running in a straight line parallel to each other you could try that. We used a simple peice of steel and held it to the spinning wheel to cut the wheel to aproxamate shape of the part. We used other scrap plate steel parts around the shop to do it, but a junk screw driver should work well. Of course your cuting away the screwdriver also so don't use a real short one or one you want to keep

For our parts we did not have to shape much and when switching over to flat parts it was easy to cut the wheel back flat again using the same method.

If you mean more of a checkerboard or diamond texture then that won't work well, you might be able to use a dremel (rotory) type tool and do it by hand

Chromo

[mp459]

Thanks to all. I will try the acetone (have not done so yet--been a little busy). By "textured" I did not mean that the piece was an actual patern. Just that the surface that I am polishing is not smooth but bumpy--imagine the handle of a cast-iron pan, but with more 'tread'.

Any ideas on how often I apply compound to the wheel, and for how long?

thanks
mickey

[chromo]

Any ideas on how often I apply compound to the wheel, and for how long?

I just touch it to the wheel for a sec or two. You don't want so much it slings off all over your face

I've seen many people really grease em down and sling it every where regularly, just waists compound. If it don't stay on the wheel it isn't doing any work!

You just need to get a nice even coating across the surface of the wheel so it can do it's work cutting then as it wears down apply more as the cutting slows. Polishing, cutting, buffing, pretty much all the same thing I think. Your taking the surface off, rather just a little tarnish or cutting down castings, just depends what your doing how much your cutting.

Chromo