Buffing wheel for bench grinder

[barbarab]

Hi,
I saw in one thread where a buffing wheel was used to polish up the aluminium trim etc.. Tony has a bench grinder but has never used a buffing wheel - are there different grades of wheel - what should he get for polishing up the window sash frames and internal trims?
Barbara B

[justanotheramy]

Hi Barbara,
I asked a grinder-savvy friend of mine (he works on one most days, and uses it for a lot of DIY stuff), and he says that yes, there are different kinds of grinder wheel for buffing: rope wheels and cloth wheels, and within each of those there are also different grades. Rope wheels are the rougher ones, then cloth. Unless the metal is in really really bad shape you'll want a cloth wheel, which you may have trouble finding at a regular hardware shop. Depending on what the metal's current condition is like and what kind of result you're after you may need to get two grades of wheel, for instance, and start with the more gutsy one and then change to a more delicate one. His advice is to try a specialist shop, maybe even somewhere that supplies to jewellers, as they'll have a variety of different grades and will be able to advise you on what will best suit your requirements.
Hope this helps,
~amy.

[DC3Td]

Hi Barbara B. Plenty of buffing wheels etc on ebay. However one thing to remember is that aluminium has a low heat threshold. If you burnish/linish it too quickly/too heavy handedly it`s a *itch of a job to rectify. So simple method: fine grade steel wool or 1200 wet & dry. If using steel wool,use dry. If 1200,make sure its kept wet. Gently done & finished off with a good buffing compound or polish & your trims will come up a treat. As an example this pair of ali light bodies before:

And after using steel wool & hand polished:

cheers gordon

[Koala]

Bunnings have buffing/polishing wheels in different grades as well as the required paste to use on them.
Just be careful about running them too fast as they will generate a lot of heat. I use mine in a bench drill where I can slow the speed and it worked just fine in my stainless trim.

Koala

[barbarab]

Thank you all for your advice. I think we'll go with the fine steel wool and elbow grease. DC3Td, they came up a treat. I'm impressed.
Barbara B