Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

[odyssey350kc]

Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Materials Needed before you start.

1. Dull / oxidized aluminum
2. Buffing machine or bench mounted grinder
3. soft and hard buffing wheels
4. Brown buffing compound= Tripoli compound used for general purpose cut and color on most soft metals.
5. Red buffing compound = Jeweler's Rouge, designed to polish without any cutting action.
6. Dual action sander
7. 120-180 grit sandpaper
8. Thick cotton gloves or equivalent
9. Dust Mask
10. Safety glasses

Preparing the metal for buffing
The first thing you want to do with your piece is sand down any imperfections in the metal with your dual action sander.

As you can see in the image below i still have more sanding to do in order to get the surface perfect/

If you can see any pitting it will show up in the finished product.

Your aluminum will now look dull and have scratches all over it from the sander.

 

[odyssey350kc]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Buffing
Set up your buffing machine with your hard wheel on one side and soft wheel on the other. I use a large standup model but a benchtop unit will work well on smaller parts.

Your next step is to apply the Brown compound to your hard buffing wheel. You just need enough to cover the wheel, if you put too much on the excess will start to sling off the wheel and make a mess

Now its as easy as holding the aluminum up to the wheel and letting the buffing compound do its work. You will want to reapply the compound periodically as you go I'd say roughly every 1-2 min.

As you buff you will notice aluminum building up on your wheel. I use a serrated tool to remove the buildup, but running a flathead screwdriver along the surface of the wheel should work just as well.

Move the part back and forth across the wheel being careful not to catch any edges on the wheel, You want to keep moving if you stay in one place to long the part will start to look wavy. I apply a pretty heavy pressure to the piece as it cuts quicker, but start light and push harder as you feel necessary. At some point the piece will become very hot and you have to be careful not to burn yourself, I usually do several parts at once so I can work on one while the other is cooling.

You are done polishing when you have removed all of the scratches from the aluminum

At this point you want to polish the metal up just a touch more with the red rouge and a soft buffing wheel.

This will remove and scratches that the more aggressive brown cutting compound has left.

Your finished product should be a near mirror finish, and everyone will be jealous of how shiny your boat is

The piece I polished was roughly 1" x 2" and i polished 3 sides, It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.

To get a better sense of how reflective this metal is I also polished a flat piece of aluminum I picked up at lowes and below is the result.

 

[concept10]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Thanks for the post. Good work shown.

I wish I could find the easiest and fastest way of getting rid of the pitting besides multiple sandings.

 

[dozerII]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Great post 350, I have a whole buch to do if you have time

 

[Bamaman1]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

I ran into tarnishing problems on my new pontoon boat 3 months after it was built. I got into the auto detailing websites and blogs.

You want to avoid sandpaper or any hard abrasive--staying with the minimum amount required to renew the shine.

I bought the Porter Cable dual action polisher with a 6" wool bonnet. I used Mother's aluminum polish, and it sucked. Switched to White Diamond metal polish (Advance Auto Parts), and it was great.

Put 3 dime size dollops on the wool bonnet, put the bonnet on the toon, and hit the trigger at medium speed setting. Polished a 2' x 2' section up and down, side to side for about 90 seconds. All of a sudden, the liquid disappeared, the rouge polished the toon and the black oxide mostly disappeared in the air. I took an old towel and wiped off the remaining black aluminum oxide off my section.

While it's not a full mirror image, it's good enough for me. There's no way realistically that a mirror image can be maintained on a boat.

If you wanted a mirror image, you'd have to use the rouge method with a high speed detailing buffer with the edge of a large cotton/felt buffing wheel. See Utube.com for aluminum polishing. They use this on heavy truck fuel tanks. There again, a heavy truck's diesel tanks are not 24' long times two or three.

 

[djpeters]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Great post 350, I have a whole buch to do if you have time

I was thinking the same thing. Post up you address......

Nice Post!

 

[wheeldriver]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Great photos Odyssey. I'd add a dust mask and eye protection to the items needed. When buffing you're standing directly inline with the buffing wheel and breathing in aluminum dust along with the compounds coming off.

 

[odyssey350kc]

Re: Odyssey's Mirror Finish Aluminum Polishing Method

Great photos Odyssey. I'd add a dust mask and eye protection to the items needed. When buffing you're standing directly inline with the buffing wheel and breathing in aluminum dust along with the compounds coming off.

I knew I would forget to write something. Will fix.