How do you polish aluminum to a mirror finish?

[Krawlin]

I've seen alot of trucks on here where people polish their own aluminum parts, and I've looked through google and haven't found a way to do it when the aluminum still has anodizing. I'm not real sure if it has to be removed or not. Anyway, what is your method for polishing aluminum RC parts? What do I need besides a dremel and some cloth wheels and polishing compound? Any good info is appreciated!


Also, I am willing to pay to have my MGT chassis polished, PM me if you can do that within a couple of weeks please.

[BrianG]

Not sure about polishing other than lots of elbow grease, time, and patience. But to remove anodizing, I've used EZ Off oven cleaner. Works great, just be careful not to get any on you...

[nitrostarter]

Originally Posted by BrianG

....lots of elbow grease, time, and patience...

Key words!

A power drill or buffing wheel on a bench grinder works well and helps on the elbow grease part.

[_paralyzed_]

the first step is to get some crystal meth, you'll want the superhuman tweaking skills to mirror polish anything.

1. no scratches. use tools and sandpaper to get a really smooth surface to start with. this step will also remove any anodizing

2. repeat step 1. seriously. you need a baby butt smooth surface to start with. you'll need several grits of sandpaper and have to progressively sand the parts smoother and smoother

3. polish. find a polishing compound and some power tool (dremel, drill, bench grinder) and the accompyaning polishing wheel and polish polish polish

4. polish some more

5.????????

6. profit

[TexasSP]

It also depends on the anodizing and type of process they use if you can get it off. Typically even light anodizing permeates a little bit of the metal so you would have to remove all of it to be able to polish it. If an item is hard anodized which is typically clear but creates a rather grayish tint to the aluminum you will not get it off with EZ off. It actually permeates and strengthens the aluminum around .003 of an inch.

[George16]

Pm Sweetride4me. He does excellent polishing.

[PBO]

Originally Posted by TexasSP

It also depends on the anodizing and type of process they use if you can get it off. Typically even light anodizing permeates a little bit of the metal so you would have to remove all of it to be able to polish it. If an item is hard anodized which is typically clear but creates a rather grayish tint to the aluminum you will not get it off with EZ off. It actually permeates and strengthens the aluminum around .003 of an inch.

Yep although many RC parts get just enough anodising to colour the parts. You can sand anodising off but you'll be using 240g minimum

Regardless, once you remove the anodising use a Scotch Brite pad next, this will take it to a brushed finish, from here you can either use a fine paper 400g or finer, then polish OR a coarse grit polish before fine polish

[ZippyBasher]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

the first step is to get some crystal meth, you'll want the superhuman tweaking skills to mirror polish anything.

5.????????

6. profit

HAHA Great! but seriously the sanding is important

[bruce750i]

Dual 6" buffing wheels on 3/4hp @ 1750rpm help, but it still takes time sanding up through the grits.

Steal wool comes in different grits also and is good for bends and elbows.

Sometimes I use a obital sander upside down in a vice for flat surfaces.

Is that a TVP chassis?

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by TexasSP

It also depends on the anodizing and type of process they use if you can get it off. Typically even light anodizing permeates a little bit of the metal so you would have to remove all of it to be able to polish it. If an item is hard anodized which is typically clear but creates a rather grayish tint to the aluminum you will not get it off with EZ off. It actually permeates and strengthens the aluminum around .003 of an inch.

This is true. The EZ Off trick worked on some Traxxas parts, notably the nitro Revo chassis. A better/deeper anodizing job may be more difficult to work with.

Just curious here: will this be a shelf-queen? I can't imagine you'll even want to get fingerprints on it after all the work/effort/cost of polishing this thing.

[brushlessboy16]

Spray clear coat paint over it
I could do it

Wet sand down to like 1000 grit, buff it, spray polyurathane clear coat over it to prevent oxidizing

[TexasSP]

Originally Posted by BrianG

This is true. The EZ Off trick worked on some Traxxas parts, notably the nitro Revo chassis. A better/deeper anodizing job may be more difficult to work with.

Just curious here: will this be a shelf-queen? I can't imagine you'll even want to get fingerprints on it after all the work/effort/cost of polishing this thing.

The traxxas stuff to me has always seemed to have more pigment and a smoother surface but less penetration. However you also have to take into consideration whether you are talking about machined parts 6061 or 7075 versus raw aluminum sheets which have been punched/press formed. The cast. The raw aluminum sheets will tend to be more coarse thus allowing anodizing to penetrate deeper than a machined smooth piece of 6061 or 7075. In fact 7075 has to be anodized differently than 6061 due to its higher density.

Some of the nicest parts I ever saw machined and anodized though were traxxas' aluminum bulkheads for the maxx trucks. Those were some absolutely beautiful parts.

[mistercrash]

Polished parts look great and you got some good advice from the guys up there. The only thing I would like to ad is that polished parts look awesome on a shelf queen. If you're going to run the truck then you might not even want to polish anything because that mirror finish will get destroyed by rocks, sand, dust or even an ant walking on it.

[Krawlin]

It's not going to be a shelf queen, I only am wanting to polish the top side of my MGT chassis, I just thought it would look good on there. I bought another new chassis off ebay for $13.50 shipped, so I figured I might as well try to make my old one look a little better and if I like how it looks then ill use it. Brushlessboy16 offered to polish it for me for $20, can't beat that for the work involved, and since it's an old chassis I don't really care if it's not perfect.

[suicideneil]

I've talked to a few guys about this over the last year or so, on this site, BYT & a PC modding site- seems that to get a flat piece of aluminium shinning like a mirror you need to go from 200-500-1000-1500 & maybe even 2000grit, then wet sand with the highest grade before using a proper metal polishing compound & a buffing tool of some sort ( dremel for tight corners ). Several hours of hard work, but being a flat chassis plate makes it easier for sure.