Polishing cast stainless

[bramble111s]

My Uncle has a Jensen 341 RS (I think thats the right numbers) and has just got a new badge cast in stainless, however it needs polishing.

What shall he use? anybody know please?

[molemot]

It's probably a 541 Jensen -- polishing? Hmm. A lot depends on the surface condition of the casting, obviously the smoother the better. Does he want to polish the whole thing, or just raised letters/emblem? The first thing would be to remove all casting flash and imperfections with - since it's stainless steel - a cutting disc or grindstone. Be careful, a moments lack of concentration can ruin the workpiece or tear bits off the operator. To finish polish, you will need to use mechanical polishing with a proper polishing wheel, on an arbor in an electric drill held in a stand. There are various abrasive pastes available at different levels of coarseness, these usually come as a solid block which is applied to the wheel and then the workpiece is applied to the rotating wheel. Again, be very careful - the workpiece can "dig in " to the wheel and be torn from your grasp and thrown most anywhere - this includes the operators face/eyes/groin etc. Some form of dustmask to keep the ejecta out of the lungs and eye protection is essential. Gloves - I use old motorcycle gauntlets, ex-despatch rider WW2 - are useful because the workpiece gets hot whilst polishing. Repeat the procedure until the desired finish is achieved! I recommend buying a copy of Motorcycle News as it usually contains advertisements for metal polishing kits - usually for alloy, but the companies advertising can advise on the best materials to use.

Hope this helps! It all sounds a bit frightening, but if you're careful it's not too much of a problem, and the sparkling shiny resplendent result justifies the effort expended.

[bramble111s]

You're right it does sound terrifying!

Any ideas on the correct abrasive pastes then?

[molemot]

I bought all my polishing kit from Kingston Tools in - surprisingly - Kingston, Surrey. All the stuff is available by mail order from suppliers you can find in MCN. The polishing abrasive is a solid block which you push into the outer edge of the rotating polishing wheel to "load" it. Then on with the polishing! It does require care, but it is really satisfying to see the results. I bought a set of two wheels, arbor and two different grades of abrasive for about

[Guest teigan]

i'm assuming the badge is beyond polishing and buffing stage. first use a new clean wire brush wheel. soft flexible hairs are better for stainless, but anything will work. hold the workpiece with locking pliers. be very careful and slow, and don't impale yourself or anyone in the room.