metal polishing pads for a buffer?

[nutwagonfromhell]

Ok here goes. I`m sanding a frame with emory cloth and i need to know what polishing pads and compound i need. I`m using a chicago pneumatic mini buffer on a minibike frame. after i polish it i`ll give it a weekly treatment of WD40 or transmission fluid to keep it from rusting. I`ve metal polished before with a bench grinder with a buffing wheel.

[nutwagonfromhell]

heres the polisher.

[Yellowhand]

I don't know if they sell felt pads for those little pneumatic sanders or not...I got a good deal on a case of assorted felt pads for floor buffers, and I just cut the size I need and shoot some contact adhesive on them.

I spend the bucks for good quality rouge...I think it makes a difference...the cheap stuff has me standing there forever, while the good stuff works in seconds, literally.

I made a polished chromoly springer fork for a guy, and he clearcoated it...I saw it about a year later, and it looked good except for a few chipped areas that had rust marks coming through.

Some of my bikes have gun-blued parts on them, and they get oiled after a ride...I personally like that look, and don't mind oiling or waxing the parts occasionally.

Sounds cool, man...can we see some pics when you finish it?

[nutwagonfromhell]

I`ll have pics of it hopefully this weekend. Been sanding and sanding all week long on it with emory cloth. I had to do some filling with the welder but it should be ready soon. It`ll only look as good as the way the people built the frame. Which is not too well, The welds are crappy i been doing tons of work to it to get it to look descent.

[Yellowhand]

One of the biggest problems with mass-produced vintage minibikes is the quality of the workmanship, especially the welds.

Many of the vintage minis were made by large companies as a secondary product, usually following lawn mowers or other turf equipment.

Many of these companies used an 'incentive' or 'piece-rate' production pay scale...

My very first job at Cushman was welding Truckster frame tubing together to complete the frame assembly, and I needed to weld four frames per hour to meet my production quota, but if I welded six frames, I was paid for the extra work, essentially time-and-a-half, even without being on overtime, so I always attempted to produce six frames per hour.

Those were definitely not pretty welds, and I was moving that big MIG gun so fast, I'm sure I missed some spots, and I'm sure I left some splatter on a mounting surface that some assembler had to deal with later...

I like to talk to the restorers at vintage bike shows...

Their bikes are judged for authenticity...how closely they resemble the way they appeared when they left the factory, and quite often the quality of the workmanship isn't nearly as good as the restorer could do himself, or easily correct while he has the bike completely disassembled...

Sometimes it's pretty painful to leave things untouched, but if the judging is accurate, they'll have points deducted for cleaning up the messy bits...

Can't wait to see how your project turns out...I know how much work it can be to clean up a frame, and I respect your effort.

[nutwagonfromhell]

thanks man. I actually found felt pads at Lowes for the hookit style buffer discs. I`ll have pics up in the projects section this afternoon. I`m pretty new to metal. I know how to pull dents out but i never metal finished before. Now should i go over it with 800 grit? I went over with 150 grit emery cloth but nobody carries the finer grit.

[Yellowhand]

I skip the 800 grit and go with 'black' rouge...roughly the same thing...it removes the scratches left by 150 grit and leaves a good base to start working on with a finer rouge...usually general-purpose or jewelers, depending on the metal being worked.

Those felt pads for buffers work nice...load that thing up with rouge and go to town at high RPM...you'll be done in no time.

I think the hardest thing for me to learn when I first started polishing was to use enough rouge...the rouge does the polishing, not the material of the wheel or the pressure I'm applying...if I use enough good-quality polishing compound, I'm done quickly...too little, and I'm standing there for hours just burning my hands.

But, on the plus side, once you load that felt disc with polishing compound, it works for quite a while with only a little added compound once in a while, and I don't mind mixing compounds on one disc...once the scratches are gone with black, I'll just start working some finer rouge into the same wheel and keep going. Not 'by the book', but I like to get stuff done quickly.

[nutwagonfromhell]

Thanks for the tip. I was planning on going over it with brasso as a final polish. I hoped to polish it tonight but I had to help a buddy put his suzuki gs 750 back togather.