Hot Rods Vibratory or hand polish raw aluminum castings

Good day, Gentlemen.

Lets say there were some cast alloy wheels that were straight out of the mold and you wanted them polished. They have some crisp edges where spoke sides meet the face that you'd like to keep.

Lets pretend you neither have the talent, nor the inclination to try it yourself. Would you look for someone that does vibratory polishing or by hand? Any specific people you'd trust?

Bonus points for knowing anywhere in between Wichita and KC, MO.

-rick

 

For a really good polish the casting surface must be be flattened before polishing even begins. Vibratory polishing won't do that. A really good job will involve some hand work with the expense that implies.

 

Go where the 18 wheelers go , lots of polished with them these days .

 

I did a set of powder coated 5 spoke aluminum wheels
I started by using stripper to remove the powder coating
It revealed left over cutting marks
I started with 150 grit wet sand paper with a sanding block and stepped up to 3000 grit all done by hand to keep a smooth flat surface.
Then polished to a high sheen

That’s what winters are for

I’m sure it could be done with a machine
but
What would I do the rest of the winter

 

Straight out of the casting die, a road wheel would have gate and overflow tabs, parting line flash, etc. Even if you were able to go to vibratory deburring, a great deal of hand work is required beforehand. Even at that, vibratory deburring is a process that is most often used for a batch of parts (not individual pieces) as it requires a fair amount of effort to get the process established with the correct amplitude and frequency on the machine and the correct vibratory media with the correct geometry, size and type.

 

Hello,
Anytime someone casts anything molten, it is going to need hand sanding and various file work to get it presentable. In our high school metal shop, we had to learn to create a mold of a project we wanted in a finished form of steel, aluminum or molten metal. So, we made the shape we wanted, made the sand casting outer mold pattern, clamped the sand tight and now were ready for the melted steel of sorts.

Once popped out of the sand casting mold, it was a semi smooth surface with rough edges. Now, the hand work started. Files to get the edges smooth, fine files to smooth it out to the next degree worked first. Then the various grades of sandpaper was used to get the surface and edges smooth. Finally, a buffing machine made the work shiny and bright, a finished project. Yes... but with a lot of hand work to the finished project.

Jnaki

That was fun in high school, but our elective college class had more intricate "lost wax casting" at the next level of hot motel metal or aluminum. The design was shaped using wax. Easy to do with a sharp clay shaping tool and Xacto knife, plus some fine tipped heat. Then as the wax took shape, it was melted onto the stand. When the hot metal was poured, the wax disappeared and in its place was the shaped project now in its design shape. So, out came the detailing tool and more work to get it presentable.

There is no getting around it, someone has to do definite handwork to finish it off. Anyone with two hands can shape, clean off the edges and fine tune the surface to be presentable. So, get out your own tools or buy what you need to finish the project. YRMV

 

It takes a lot of hand sanding, prep, and then polishing. This scoop was a rough casting that I turned into a high polished piece. Done over the winter , when I polish lots of stuff on the coupe.

 

I wonder what the rates are per winter.

 

Where does one even look to get something like that done? I guess they aren't straight out of the mold- there are no flash or sprues, they look to be able to mount tires, but in pics they look much fuzzier than an "as cast finish" found in catalogues

-rick

 

A vibratory finish is what you'll find on modern cast aluminum bodied carbs. Shinier than as-cast, but not a 'polished' surface. To speed the process, I use 2" roloc scotchbrite-syle discs on a small die grinder to smooth the surface before polishing. If it's reasonably smooth, start with a blue disc then switch to grey. Rougher finishes, start with a maroon disc for initial smoothing. Saves a ton of time over sandpaper if using a buffer.

 

Aluminum is one of the easiest finishes to polish. I have cut and polished just about anything I can unbolt. Like @Crazy Steve , I use 2" roloc abrasives as course as 35, as fine as 5000 before polishing to what ever grade finish I desire. No one to blame but myself if they don't turn out. No one to take credit but me when they do.

Build a polishing stand out of an old spindle, put in your earbuds and some decent tunes, a face shield/gloves and get busy. It's February, you got 3 months. Go!

 

Two times my regular rate
of course multiples of zero is still zero

 

If you haven't tried the scotchbrite discs, you should. I rarely use sanding discs as I've found the scotchbrite works great for smoothing the surface without being too aggressive. Especially if polishing something with detail you don't want to lose.

 

I start with files on manifolds as a polished surface really shows waviness

 

Inclination.....
Yep...

Talent....not much really, you don’t have to be Picasso. Then again, maybe you do.

I don’t where you can find a service that could do this. Do this, and do this to the desired result, that’s the big thing.
Throw then in a big media polisher; if there is such a thing, you’ll get polished flash.

Basically these are incomplete, say 97 percent done. This leaves the last 3 percent which is 90 percent of the handwork and 90 percent of the look.

You’ll have to go pre-industrial or at least pre-automated.....
Files, Files, more files, sandpaper wrapped files in various grits until you get the desired result.
This is lots and lots of hand work on difficultly shaped pieces.
How do you hold a freaking wheel?

As parts get rougher and rougher, these 18th Century skills may be necessary for all of us.

The “Inclination” is the “Talent”.

 

Inclination.
The willingness to become exceedingly familiar with every nook and cranny.
Be the nook.
Be the cranny.
Be ambidextrous.

 

Scotchbrite is the ticket, cost twice as much and last three times as long. The last abrasives kit I bought came with a rotoloc sanding pad that accepts hook and loop fine (600-7000) 2" discs. Now I don't have to change tools or arbors. I find air tools move faster and polish easier but I still use the Dremel for the uber tight spots.

 

Well, I don't know about the lasting longer part as I'll go through a bunch of them. But I also buy in bulk so that reduces the price by quite a bit. Generally, one smaller part when restoring previously polished parts = two discs, one blue and one gray. Larger parts or never polished parts will use more. But the time-saving is well worth it to me.

One thing I do is cut down the arbor diameter from 2" to 1". The allows the discs to flex at the edge and allows a lot more control in tight spots or 'blending'.

If I have a particularly lumpy part, I will go after it with files and bigger sanding discs.

 

Plugged aluminum polishing and witchita in and got this. Have no idea of price and quality. It does say send a pic, get a quote.

https://decometalfinishing.com/metal-polishing-in-wichita-ks.html

 

I invested in a 1.5 HP Baldor buffer that can spin 10" wheels about 20 years ago, I've never regretted it. It's paid for itself many times over. I just wish there was a way to reduce the dirty factor...

 

Hah! When I was polishing the T-5 last month for my roadster, I looked in the mirror and saw what appeared to be a coal miner looking back at me. Filthy job! I should hire Mike Rowe to do some polishing next time.

 

Die grinder works good, but it's noisy and stuff. Figured I'd try an electric unit. A little heavy, but worked good for a while until the electric switch got overloaded and burnt out. I was using it for polishing tight areas and I guess high friction and bearing down too hard killed it. Higher quality brand might help. Exchanged it for another one. Same thing happened. Exchanged it again and they told me okay but this is the last time. LOL

Again, air powered is fine.
But I still think electric can work.
This looks promising.

 

I used one like that at the machine shop to deburr small parts. Still noisy, but less so and didn't freeze up in the cold.

A couple of pointers if going that way...
Get a foot pedal controller. Being able to adjust speed while applying different pressures is a huge improvement in operation.
Bright light and a comfortable position will make it so you can do it for more than a little while. Also take breaks! The focus and position will lead to tightening up. Gotta shake it off.
The small parts were done holding the tool and part. If doing bigger stuff, make a fixture/holder.

 

Good call on the foot throttle @RodStRace

Other than that switch melting. @Rickybop Would you recommend that vevor? I have bought a few items from them and they all worked out well, especially for the money!

I have a couple small buffers that are vevor and the switches are a PITA. You have to depress them and push them forward at the same time. Crap. I plan on just sticking a toggle switch on it. But the Idea of a foot throttle would make buffing paint easier than that dial they stuck on the back.

 

I don't have before and after photos of my finned aluminum valve cover for my 292 Chevy six but having Andy Tants polish it cost as much as the valve cover did but he did a Bandit Billy quality polish job. I've seen Billy's work up close several times and it is top level.
That said, having someone polish rough cast wheels to show level shiny is not going to be inexpensive. The truck wheel and tank and other shiny aluminum polishing folks are usually repolishing factory polish jobs at maybe a higher level.

 

Thanks for the “shiny” review! Sanding and polishing wheels could easily run $3-400 per wheel depending on what level finish is desired.

Check on the local interstate in you live near one. And decent truck stop would know a local that polishes Alcoa wheels. We have several around here. What they normally do not do is the sanding of the casting and fine polish. For that you need a chrome shop. They know how to polish.

 

Trust me, I bought some no name abrasives on amazon last year and they would cut for about 5-10 minutes before needing replacement when I was sanding that T-5. Utter garbage. The 3M discs are what I try to find.

 

Absolutely, find and use 3M disks, worth every penny.

 

You polished your t5? That seems tedious.
I have polished all kinds of stuff over the years but never transmission All those little casting ridges and squares would drive me batty trying to get them shiny.

 

you didn't see that post(s)??