Have some finned aluminum pieces that I want to polish. Found a buffing or polishing kit on ebay that comes with a handful of buffing pads for a electric drill. And some other misc. pieces.. I haven't tried to polish anything before. Is this something I can do for real? Or will I be disappointed?
You will probably be disappointed. Good long lasting shiny polishing requires a buffing wheel and the correct compounds. Those little electric drill kits won't do it.
You will probably toast a drill trying to polish anything of large size...i.e. valve covers, you can do small stuff like knobs and stuff, but i would look for a buffing wheel for a bench grinder.....
Sanding the part w/ finer and finer paper 400#-2000# will help bring out a deep shine, WD40 for lube. Take your time, as alway's.
be prepared for way more work than you plan for power tools are good its great to look at a self polished part after completion
Plus that kit only works after you sanded your fingertips off with finer and finer sandpaper. As simple as polishing is it requires an investment in the machinery ($$$) and a lot of labor to do a lot of pieces. If you want to only do one part go sand away and use the ebay kit but I am sure that you will give the next part to a professional.
gotta get a real buffer or be real patient if you insist on going the drill route. do you guys have ACE Hardware stores out there? thery sell polishing compounds and wheels. I did a lot of polishing with just a small bench grinder. I had to remove the gaurd. then like a dumb*** I put the grinding wheel back on without the gaurd and it exploded and went flying across the garage...BAM! against the wall. could have been seriously killed.
I started out using buffing wheels in a hand grinder it takes a while but it can be done. I bought a 10 horse buffer years ago and hate polished aluminum now.
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