Buffing Stainless Steel

P

pingable

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I've got a stainless steel item that has slight scratches.

Where should I go to buy what tools and abrasive for it.

The overall finished piece is high polished stainless.



I assume it's going to fit the chuck of a drill.

If it's a grinder.........I'm going to have to clean up my metabos.



Have plenty of polishers/rotarys as well....



Tell me more about buffing compounds...

Buffing Compound - Auto Buffing, Polishing Compound



My metal polishing go-to is Heavy Metal Polish *medium and fine grade* and well as Flitz...

This is more for oxidation level polishing.



I need something with more cut to *level* the scratches in the SS and the bring it back to a high polish
 
If you have a standard 7in rotary that is all you need for the job. But you do not want to use a foam paint pad. I would get a 8in spiral sown cotton buff. You will buff with the edge of the wheel with the buffer 90 degrees to the wrokpeice. To attach the buff to the buffer you will need to find a 5/8-11 nut and 2 washers. Just put one washer on the buff and then another washer and the nut to hold it all in place. Now to the polish you need to get the sticks of dry rouge. They will be blocks of polish. You run the wheel up to speed and then hold the stick to the spinning wheel. And do this often as you are buffing to keep some polish on the piece or you will not be cutting anything. You need to rake the wheel to clean it every 30 min or so to get the buildup out. Stainless is a harder metal to polish. You will need to sand first. depending on how bad it is i would use a DA sander (i like 3m stick it gold paper) with 220 up to 400(stainless is so hard 800 is not a bad idea) then take your block of course stainless rouge and go to town with the buffer wide open. The part will get hot. And buff until all the sanding scratches are gone. Then go to the finer polish and do the same until all the polishing marks are gone. Then you want to switch to a loose cotton buff and use a fine polish to put a mirror polish on it. And you will be Black from head to toe when you are done.
 
Buffing Compound-Stainless-1lb Bars, 3 Pack here is the rouge i would use. with a sprial sown buff.



Buffing Compound-White Rouge-1lb Bars, 3 Pack then follow with this on a loose buff.



You can also use grey emery on a tight sprial buff to do some agressive buffing to help remove sanding scratches or instead of sanding but you can make a wavy surface because this does remove metal. Buffing Compound-Emery-1lb bars, 3 Pack



Spiral Sewn Buff Wheel



Loose Section Buff Wheel



BTW eastwood is pretty high on the rouge you can get it for 3 bucks a stick at most industral suppliers. Harbor freight carrys most everything you need.
 
I make a lot of (I mean LOTS of money) restoring stainless moldings off of classic muscle cars.

It is "work", and NOT as easy as what some think.

First thing is to "sand" the part.

Starting with 400 or 600 grit, observing how deep are the scratches, etc, are needed to be worked out, then moving to 1000, same inspection, then 1500 grit, same inspection -IE- have I removed the deep markings, then 2000 grit?

At the point that the deep scars are gone, I move to a heavy buffing rouge, and then after inspection to a fine rouge, using a sewn cotton wheel either on a bench grinder or a high speed rotary buffer.

Anything else, just a lesson in frustration.

No matter what, one has to just keep "working" the stainless surface, after all it usually 18% chrome in a 72% steel, and that is tough stuff, that's why it is called "stainless".

Grumpy
 
Do a goggle search of Kevin Brown and polishing SS. On MOL he did a thread on a 57 Chevy w/SS trim using megs 105. Great info.
 
Ron Ketcham said:
I make a lot of (I mean LOTS of money) restoring stainless moldings off of classic muscle cars.

It is "work", and NOT as easy as what some think.

First thing is to "sand" the part.

Starting with 400 or 600 grit, observing how deep are the scratches, etc, are needed to be worked out, then moving to 1000, same inspection, then 1500 grit, same inspection -IE- have I removed the deep markings, then 2000 grit?

At the point that the deep scars are gone, I move to a heavy buffing rouge, and then after inspection to a fine rouge, using a sewn cotton wheel either on a bench grinder or a high speed rotary buffer.

Anything else, just a lesson in frustration.

No matter what, one has to just keep "working" the stainless surface, after all it usually 18% chrome in a 72% steel, and that is tough stuff, that's why it is called "stainless".

Grumpy
Click to expand...



I agree.

To the O.P.:

I have polished stainless before , too. I took my stainless to a shop to have them polish it and they used a belt sander on them and made them all ripply. I then had to sand all of those ripples out, and eventually buff it with a buffing wheel. I had to start with 220, it was so bad. I then moved up to 280, 320, 400, 600, 800, 900, 1000, 1200, 1500, and finally 2000. I put a little bit of detergent in the water I used as a lubricant for the wetsanding. I then used stainless compound, white rouge, and finally, jewelers rouge, to yield an extra deep shine.

Buffing generates a lot of heat, so you have to keep the part moving. You don't want to concentrate too much heat in one place, or you can warp the part. It took me as long as 14 hours apiece for my 57 Chevy quarter window moldings. I hand sanded the whole thing, using a small flexible rubber block. Sometimes I would change the direction of my sanding marks to be sure I removed the coarser marks before getting too fine in my paper. It can be difficult to really tell if you have all of the deeper marks out if you only sand in one direction the entire time. Stainless is indeed really hard. It is much harder than the steel used for body panels.

As with all polishing, always start finer, and see how it goes.
 
I used to make a good money in my motorcycle shop. Polishing the alumunum frames of sportbikes. $350 a pop. My cheap harbor freight buffer has paid for it self 20 fold.

I keep waiting for it to die to replace it with a mikita but it just keeps on trucking. Alumunium is easier to polish than stainless. And dont get it wrong its not easy money tp

its a nasty job.
 
I would like to add that when stainless is scratched, it is often dented. Because stainless is so hard, once it is formed, it does not like to be bent again. You can only work it so much, so often or so far before it cracks. Straightening stainless is an art. Even the best craftsmen can only get so much of the dents or creases out of stainless, but the ones with the most skill know how far they can take it without cracking it, to get the best results. If it needs any straightening, I suggest you take it to an expert.
 
Little by little, I have been learning to straighten stainless moldings.

If they have been bent to a right angle, no way I can do it.

A dent, or such, have made some different anvils out of all sorts of heavy iron parts, like rail road track plates, etc.

Have all sorts of hammers, from brass watch makers to some really weird, small steel, sometimes use various body hammers and dollys for the rough out work.

As stated, it has to be worked slowly or it cracks, plus once it is straighten, then the sanding, etc starts.

Very labor intensive, worse part being that after I have got some to the point I think I can start the sanding/buffing, find that it just won't be right.

Frustrating to say the least.

Grumpy
 
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