hi there everyone. i'm tryin to get myself into stainless restoration and i'm gettin there. but i still need help on a few things. i know the process of how its done and stuff like that and right now i'm getting it down pretty darn good except the micro-sanding-scratches-only-seen-up-close-at-angle-in-the-light are killing me! i been looking around and from what i heard most professionals after just rough sand use what i heard is a cutting wheel and some form of cutting rouge thats is supposedly suppose to get rid of scratches which then you move onto buffing what type/brand of wheel and rouge should i buy? then after buffing to mirror like shine (i have sewn cotton wheel with green rouge) i also still have a haze thats seen-up-close-at-angle-in-light that plagues me as well i heard a loose cotton wheel is needed so what brand and what rouge or compound should i buy? also what is a paddle wheel? some articles mentioned it but didn't say what it does. thanks ahead of time for the people that hopefully can help me! also once i do get good in the near future i will do a post on my work!
Are a paddle wheel and flapper wheel the same thing? I think Flapper Wheel when you say Paddle Wheel.
try a D-A sander with hook and loop, should only need 1000 grit or so, polish with green bar like you mentioned. My friend has made a living doing it. I watched him polish a headlight trim for his 56, and it caught on the wheel spun around and grazed is stomach. 7 or 8 s***ches to close that one.
yeah flapper is what i meant i would like to get away from the finer grits of sandpaper and use cutting wheels as it takes a loooong time and lot and lots of sandpaper
A flapper wheel is a "disc" of sandpaper pieces that typically come on an attachment for a drill or dremel. They flap...kinda like a baseball card hitting the spokes of a bike.
You didn't describe your buffing equipment. A professional shop will have a minimum 3 to 5 hp motor spinning a 10"to 12" buffing wheel at 2500 rpm shaft speed. After straightening, filing and rough sanding with a DA in spin mode with 100 or 150 grit, we might sand with 220 or go to what we call a 220 grease wheel. This is turkish emery glued to a hard s***ched buff, used with grease stick. First buff is a sisal, they come in many different configurations. We use a 12" air buff style with metal centers and use stainless compound, which is black & comes in various grits from 220 to 300 typically. Next is a cotton buff, again we like the air buff style with metal centers, 10-12" with green coloring compound. Some guys like white diamond which is slightly co****r. Final buff is with a loose cotton or some prefer a flannel material with the green compound, there is also a light blue compound that some guys like. To help get rid of that haze, rake the final buff often, metal will stick to the buff & cause scratches, use the green compound sparingly and, or use a liquid metal polish or wax & let it dry & buff off lightly with a clean ( freshly raked ) buff. In the end everybody does this a little differently, some are good at picking up little tricks or modifying how they go about it. Some guys can do this job better, faster and have a near perfect finished product. They have the ideal set of skills and at***ude to do the job. In 40 years I have seen about 2 of these guys.
I picked up an Eastwood 1/3 hp, 3600 rpm buffer at a swap meet. For stainless I use the Eastwood stainless compound (dark gray) with a spiral sewn cotton wheel to take out scratches. Then I finish it with their white rouge compound on a loose sewn buff. It's the nuts, and I'm a self taught amateur. I don't use sandpaper at all. P.S- Be sure to wear the best safety goggles you can if buffing. Compound thrown in your eye at 3600 rpm will have you hurting for several days.
Try this website: http://www.buschshineproducts.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=7 They have a big trailer and equipment at the Street Rod Nationals events. Very nice people. Will give you lots of tips and ONLY sell you what you need.
We polish stainless steel carriage bolts for our Visibolt products. Most of the polishing is done with an abrasive convolute wheel on a 6 inch bench buffer. We use two different grits of convolute wheels before we move on to the cotton buffing wheels. The convolute wheels are made by 3M. We end up with a mirror finish on the bolts.
for sanding file marks and scratches out I use a wooden 'cylinder' with a fitting that goes on my drill and I clamp the drill in my vice...bit harem-scarem but hey! I need my hands free to hang onto them thar mouldings! the sandpaper (180-220g) is velcroed onto the cylinder fittin and it works good and quick . I swap between the buff and paper till no more marks then buff em up with a white cuttin compound . works good and my customers are happy
hey thanks redo32 for the very descriptive description! thats going to help me out a lot! i will have to go on online buying spree monday. once i get my setup totally rockin and a rollin i will post a bunch of pictures of my finished results. right now in the meantime i'm hammering on some heavily damaged door trim to improve my skills while i figure out what i need to make the end results perfect as possible. heres a couple pics of a piece i just sold to some guy. it had some of the aforementioned problems but overall turned out nice enough to sell.
i also picked up the eastwood system---i start with 600 grit on the da in grind mode[be careful] it will take out the ''deeper scratches'---then i use 800 on the da in orbital mode---then i buff with the emery compound [dk grey] on sisal wheel[5-6 spirals]---then emery[dk grey] on the next wheel[second hardest with less sewn spirals than sisal 3-4 spirals]----then im going to hit it with the next wheel with the wht[stainless compound] less sewn spirals[2-3 spirals]---then finally the rouge and the wheel with the least amount of sewn spirals[1-2 spirals] the key is to get out all the deep scratches out at the begining with the sandpaper---if it isnt out---it will show up in the later buff compounds------- from what ive seen----
...even wet sanding? Wet sanding will make that paper last a lot longer. Keep us updated on your progress.
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