onaqwst

in the process of making some polished aluminum parts. right now, i'm sanding them with 220 with a square palm sander, then i'm using a polishing compound on a buff wheel (for a drill press). the issue is that i can still see the sanding swirls and curious if i should wet sand with 400 or use a cutting compound on a different buff wheel.

b

noonie

Go thru all the grits, preferrably wet.
200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, etc, then final polish compound.
If you miss any, you will see scratches.
I use a pedestal buffer and bar compound.

Built some tables years ago with edm stainless legs and they wanted a fortune to polish to high luster. This is why.
Experiment, you may not have to start that rough, but this is the proper way.

http://www.schaffnermfg.com/bar-compounds.html

Search the site for hints and pay attention to speeds.

corvetteload

i ALSO LEARNED THAT AS YOU CLIMB THE SANDPAPER SCALE, YOU SHOULD GO OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS in your sanding, start horizontal, then the next grade go vertical, then horizontal, etc. I was told this is how bodywork is sanded also. I was told to use WD40 as a lubricant, doesn't pull the metal as when dry sanded............I screwed up my blower scoop royally sanding, and had to take it to a local guy who worked wonders on it for a great price.

crf311

Wet sand thru the different grits. sand in opposite directions with each change of sandpaper grit. working your way down to 2000 grit. I always like doing it by hand. Then polish out by hand or machine.

DaJesterMan

and if you want to keep the shine, wipe on some Sharkhide... go to their website and check it out. I plan on using some on my old alum rims i polished up over the summer. Should work better than wax to keep them from oxidizing.

onaqwst

thanks for the tips... i'm going to try this out this weekend once i gather up my materials and see what happens....