This is very interesting. I've had this problem and kept thinking that finer and finer sandpaper was the solution. Thank you very much for pointing this out.
So glad I stumbled across this video! Weird how things work but someone must of knew I was trying to restore my wheels. Lol, I've wasted a lot of time and sandpaper thinking the higher the better. It makes so much sense now that the higher the paper the more pores your closing. The compound has to have something to adhere too duh. Lol, I'm certainly subscribing to this guy!
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing I’ve been having the same issue. I used to do cut and polish paint, wheels, trim, headlights, do clear bra and do window tint for a living. Long story short rn I’m working on mirror polishing on knives and good lord I’ve been struggling making the process quicker. Harder with 60+ HRC materials, trying to take the stonewash off is the reason I even went to sand paper to begin with. I’ll have to try the 600 on a throw away. Diamond lapping compound is all I’ve found lately that’s been hard enough to really erase all the marks but that compound gets expensive
in car, we sand clear coat with 1200, 1500, 3000 then we use polisher to get mirror finish, seems like in steel, or aluminium it is no good. great lesson, i learned about PORES today . you are a great teacher.
This is interesting for sure. I never realized that metal polishing worked that way. The exact opposite of wet sanding and polishing paint. Please keep the videos coming.
this is why i keep looking---i find someone who knows what they are doing--i been doing the 2000 like most people say with poor results--thank you so much--glad i found a pro--now i wont waste my time and get it right--thanks again
This explains why EVERY time I've ever attempted to polish anything I've gotten garbage result. Days wasted on small projects like calipers and valve covers to end up with no shine. Thank you for the information!!! I'm going to give it another shot not going above 600.
Thank you for all the educational information! I've been told wrong by a whole lot of guys that say the finer the paper the deeper the shine and I've wasted so much time with the black hayes and cloudy shine. Extremely helpful video!
Hadn't I see this video prior starting my bicycle restoration project, I would have given up after first attempt. By following your brilliant video here, Evan, I was able to get nice mirror shine with less effort than I thought needed. Thank you, man! You deserve 1 million subscribers!
I just wanted to stop in a say how much this has helped me.. Im building a new snowmobile and was struggling polishing the new alum tunnel.. I even tried up to 5000.. lol.. after watching your video.... I now go straight to 800 grit sanding and only 800, then 2 cuts with orange buff/Brown and then right to white buff/purple for a near mirror finish..
I've only gone up to 800 a couple times before I started to cut, i thought about trying a higher grit and after seeing this video I'm glad I stopped at 800, I was amazed at the fact I was able to make those tanks shine at all ( 20 to 25 years never been polished before and very rough) my customers were very happy and as surprised as I was
Thank you! I decided to undertake the polishing of my aluminum front door, which I thought would be a simple process with the right tools, and have spent the last week raging at the innefective mess I created and countless hours spent. Like others, the most popular videos on youtube involve using up to 5000 grit sandpaper and make the process look as easy as 1-2-3. I couldn't figure out why for the life of me, the whole thing started to look *worse* as I went up in grits. Then when it came time to polish, the black film was practically impossible to remove without the use of solvent and left bands of haze. It was maddening! I just went and knocked the whole thing back down with brown scotch-brite pads, proceeded straight to buffing, and wow!
I used 320 - 400 - 600 with wet dry paper. I screwed up with a fine brass brush doing paint removal and the 320 let me work those out with light elbow grease. Then the 400 then I ended with the 600 and fine emery cloth to get out hair line grit marks I made accidentally touching the paper. And then clear coated. My aluminum project turned out awesome with your grit advice. I believe I could of polished next and had nice clean good results but I had to finish up could not wait any longer for a kit. The alternate idea to polish came too late.
Not sure how I missed this vid, but this is one of your best sanding vids! I only polish my personal stuff, and I’ve spent all day before sanding one rim. Goes to show that finer isn’t always better. Thanks Evan!!
P.S. Buy your products from Evan, and you can follow along using exactly what he uses so there’s no surprises. I’ve learned what I know just from watching his vids. Pay attention, as it’s the small details that matter most, like using cotton terry, not microfiber. I polish my own, and the results speak for themselves.
Thank you very much for the video. I am very new to polishing. I polished my first wheel and it came out well, tried sanding the next one and I took it to 1,000 thinking the smoother the better. It came out with less shine then the first one. I was very confused but this video explains everything perfectly.
Wow Evan, and you just proved my theory wrong, because on cars the higher the grade the better the outcome, so thank you very very much for all the information. You are truly an inspiration
thank you so much evan. I have tried with different machines and sanding and polishing materials on stainless steel and none of them worked in my case. Now i tried with your instructions in this video I've used 400,600,800 grit only and polished on 600 grit sanding it looks just perfect and 400,800 not that good as 600. Thanks again...🙏🙏🙏
Thanks Evan , You have the best channel for hands on advice , I have learnt so much about polishing and the products to use to get a top quality finish. 👍
Awesome video man! Was having problems polishing the lip on my wheels I was sanding up to 2000 before polishing! Sanded again at 600 and polished looks way better!
I have been sanding bicycle parts with a bristle disc on a Drexel up to 2000 grit and had trouble getting the mirror finish first time i.stopped at 600 then went to pollish bam mirror finish thank you evan
🎉you tell them brother I normally only go to 600 or 800 myself and get pretty decent results self taught and driver made I love my guys they're awesome I hear all the time someone saying I take it to 1,500 plus I'm like dude it's pointless there's no need for it it might buffing a little easier or faster but not by much
OMG!! Finally found answers! Great explanations and demonstration :) Thank you so much for that video! Like many others in the comments below, I had this problem and I was also told the same about finer grit. I make mirror finish custom built kitchen hoods, and I struggled like crazy with those foggy marks on my last project: reflection of the light on the big flat inclined surface make it appeared even worse : ( I'm looking forward for better results now knowing this! Very helpful!
I get mirror finish on my stainless at 600 grit also. If you sand anything properly you should be able to buff out 600 grit scratches. But I've also been doing this 24 years. LOL Thank you for watching and commenting.
hI evan, afer watching your many videos, i started buffing and coloring my stainless steel sink in my kithche, i thought of replacing it, but looking at all videos, i bought makita 3200 RPM polishing buffer and used red and pink airway bufing wheel with black and yellow compound it came very nice and I am very pleased. while doing this i had a challenge on the corner of kitchen sink where shape is concave.. do you have any tips or suggestion .. i tried different angle. may be i am missingn something.
In the really tight corners, we use a cone buff or a mushroom buff with both black Rouge yellow Rouge or green Rouge. All of them put on a drill and shoved into the corner will help you polish those.
Awesome info. One may think it’s like paint work, the finer the smoother the better the paint, right? But proof is in the pudding here. Aluminum is similar to skin, need the pours open to get a deep clean… great video my friend. Thank you so much.
Glad to help and give back. Thank you for the support and the kind comment. I will continue to try to give my best when I can. If you ever have more questions hit me up.
I'm definitely no expert on glass. I wouldn't know where to begin. Sorry I can't help in this area. I know my metals but glass is outside of my scope. Thank you for the comment though.
Just found ur channel.....👍 Can I apply this video towards cleaning my aluminum rims off my Dually! Other than polishing in the military.....I have never polished a rim in my life.
It would really be helpful to know what grade aluminum that tank is. I work with marine grade 5052 and I suspect different alloys may have different properties.
When I polish, I get the same haze that is shown on the higher grits, even though I'm only sanding up to 600. Any tips? Maybe too much compound or not enough pressure on the buff?
I was watching a video on sharpening knives and 600 grit was the best and anything else wasnt needed and after seeing this i understand why, its the pores 😅 but in sharpening knives we also use chrome oxide to finish off the edge.
I heard from another channel that depending on paint you use for example can spray paint a higher sand grit in needed for paint adhears better? Is this the case?
Thanks for the info just bought a new set of rims love the design hate the color so plan on stripping paint and will sand them. Since they’re a brand new wheels would I still work my way up to 400 grit or can I start at 400?? Thanks for any info!
Depends what you are looking to do but goshineon.com has a bunch of helpful kits that I put together to simplify the choices. We have small kits and big kits.
Evan I used a rotary with a thousand grit and da thousand grit I found it works but definitely takes way longer to cut out 600 is definitely the sweet spot I rotary a tank but I found the higher you go past 600 it harder for the buff to cut
Had polished a set of new tanks in the past up that high, they looked milky, now I know why. Thanks! I wonder if cleaning with acid between passes would make a difference?
I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this explanation, I polish raised numbers and letters cast plaques, I bought a grinder /polisher all the airways and bars and always struggle, first I have tried using buffs but it's like polishing a rake with the raised letters pulling the compound off and building up on the plaque, I can eventually get a shine but then I have a massive mess of compound to clean off before I can paint the background. I then started to just sand from 80 to 5000 and then use a liquid such as white diamond or a wizards. I do achieve a shine but it has swirl marks I can't get rid of. I was polishing one last week and tried using my fine buff and compound to get rid of the swirl marks and ended up with a mess of smeared compound, your video here explains why. Do you have any suggestions that may help with my situation? Thanks
Hey there, I'm currently polishing an airstream and have done an initial cut with Brown tripoli and a red airway wheel using the Dewalt variable speed polisher. I then cleaned the surface with mineral spirits and changed to a coloring wheel and moved to a green moss compound, I noticed from certain angles and lighting, a brown haze develop after step 2. Is this something you've experienced before? and what can I do about this? ( I did not have to sand it)
Awesome info! So hey if someone has to hand polish, can you hand polish out 600 or 800grit within a reasonable amount of time or is that pretty much impossible?
Whish I would've watched this before I bought all my sanding discs. I just bought up to 1500 grit for some wheels I'm going to be working on. Live and learn I guess lol. I will be redoing some pieces of trim for my Bronco though, I took that to 3000 by hand and didn't think the shine and reflection are what it could be
Thanks for sharing this, im going through this now while trying to do some tool restorations, its like pseudo science that goes against what we learned when younger... Not understanding why the metal is not doing what we want gets frustrating... learning alot from vids. Thanks. Why no hole sandpaper?
It looks like you weren't washing off the residue of the previous sand paper before moving onto the next - so by the time you reach 3000 all you've done is compound the residue of all the previous sanding into the surface - hence it's smooth but not shiny. I was surprised that you were dry sanding from 400 up anyway - I've seen people sanding with water or oil from 400 up with some great results but never dry - was there a reason for doing it dry?
This not a criticism as your real world expertise is extremely valued. However, it has been my understanding that you should be wet sanding with any of these higher grits and you are dry sanding here. Do you think that wet sanding the higher grits would make a difference in how it finishes out or would you still run into the issue of the aluminum not accepting the polish?
I work in a polishing shop. I will test wet/dry sanding and see how that pans out. Also, whenever we do higher grits we ALWAYS clean the surface after sanding as any particulates can mix with the grit of the rouge making all the effort for nothing. Keep your work clean.
Very interesting experiment and I have a few theories: 1. The hardness of the metal/alloy matters - as we see in the video it works very well for aluminium but going higher in Stainless Steel helps a lot 2. I feel the grit used (rouge) works well for 600 but having a finer grit may have worked for 1000 and above . From a personal experience products like gords work well in clearing the haze 3.For this system I feel that 600 + rouge on airway buff works very well as demonstrated. Will a DA with Pad work better for 1000+ based on the grain direction?
If you are wanting to do this we have a product called LUHMI that allows to you hand polish out 600 grit. It is amazing. You can get it at www.goshineon.com
Does this theory work the same for sanding and polishing by hand? I’m trying to fix my wheels right now. I started wetsanding from 800 up to 3000 and polishing with sinister devils brew. And so far it’s coming out absolutely perfect
Thanks for this info! Interesting about the pores closing up. I wonder if this happens on mild steel also. I am doing a deep dive into mirror finishes on mild steel for my plasma cut artwork. It makes a lot of sense to only go up to a certain grit and then start cutting (if that is the correct term - I'm just begining the journey-sort of). I saw one guy polish stainless going up to 5000 grit with Alumicut and it came out pretty sweet. I guess Alumicut is a light oil? I've actually used compound paste for paint, Mother's metal polish and green and black polishing sticks with a flat 4" fine grade wool disc. It works pretty well for buffing/polishing. I have even thought of trying a polishing paste with the sandpaper to speed up the process. Is that just crazy or will it work? One of my challenges is polishing a piece with multiple egdes, curves and points, which can grab (flat) sandpaper and trash it instantly. I just got a (short throw) DA orbital sander and am experimenting with it over various grits of sandpaper. I discovered if I use a 6" disc on a 5" pad, I can bend up the edges enough to clear 'obstacles'. Any advice would be appreciated.
After 400 ideally start to use some lubricant to remove particles between work piece and sandpaper also to cool the workpiece in some items (glass etc) Try using hard backed disc instead of foam backing, especially at lower grids to cut surface better. After you remove them, sandpaper shouldn’t catch that often. If you want to make chamfer to your work piece hard backed disc is a must for me. Foam pads gives me a round over instead of chamfer. Hope it helps.
G'day Evan, as a guy down under, (so sadly, can't take one of your classes,) is there anyway you can show the pores? Love all your teaching, inspiring and educational. Would also love to know if using a slower speed buffer, say the 3000rpm, would the results be better or worse than this? Cheers.
Yes I found with slower speed it was even worse. Next time I meet with my metallurgist I will see if he is ok with me filming and showing the pores of the aluminum. Thanks for watching.
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing that would be amazing. Love your work mate, (side note, just ordered some time to shine products from your Australian distributor, can't wait to try it out!)
I am thinking about polishing my own wheels, car wheels. I have no intention of using machines, i plan to hand sand everything. Couple questions, ive seen some japanese use wet sand method by hand sanding. Should i do this as well? Ive been trying to do some research and even watch some of your videos and you never touched on wet sand because you only use machines. Any advice would be great
No don’t wet sand just dry sand and I recommend using a orbital makita sander like the one Evan is using , very handy if you’re gonna sand and they don’t look too bad start with 600 if they are bad and have pitting go with 400 And if they are bad bad go to 320 400 then 600
Damn i think this might solve my problem. Ive been sanding up to 2000 and getting lots of haze. Is it possible to sand with these higher grits and go straight to yellow/green?
This is very interesting. I've had this problem and kept thinking that finer and finer sandpaper was the solution. Thank you very much for pointing this out.
Glad you found it helpful. Glad I could help.
Yep I had the same problem.i thought the same
So glad I stumbled across this video! Weird how things work but someone must of knew I was trying to restore my wheels. Lol, I've wasted a lot of time and sandpaper thinking the higher the better. It makes so much sense now that the higher the paper the more pores your closing. The compound has to have something to adhere too duh. Lol, I'm certainly subscribing to this guy!
Depending on what you're working on, I completely agree with you Evan. Good job buddy
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing I’ve been having the same issue. I used to do cut and polish paint, wheels, trim, headlights, do clear bra and do window tint for a living. Long story short rn I’m working on mirror polishing on knives and good lord I’ve been struggling making the process quicker. Harder with 60+ HRC materials, trying to take the stonewash off is the reason I even went to sand paper to begin with. I’ll have to try the 600 on a throw away. Diamond lapping compound is all I’ve found lately that’s been hard enough to really erase all the marks but that compound gets expensive
in car, we sand clear coat with 1200, 1500, 3000 then we use polisher to get mirror finish, seems like in steel, or aluminium it is no good. great lesson, i learned about PORES today . you are a great teacher.
Thank you. Appreciate you watching and commenting.
This is interesting for sure.
I never realized that metal polishing worked that way.
The exact opposite of wet sanding and polishing paint.
Please keep the videos coming.
Will do! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Appreciate it.
this is why i keep looking---i find someone who knows what they are doing--i been doing the 2000 like most people say with poor results--thank you so much--glad i found a pro--now i wont waste my time and get it right--thanks again
Happy to help! Thank you for watching, glad you found this helpful.
This explains why EVERY time I've ever attempted to polish anything I've gotten garbage result. Days wasted on small projects like calipers and valve covers to end up with no shine. Thank you for the information!!! I'm going to give it another shot not going above 600.
Truly hope it helps. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel.
Im glad i found this video. I sanded to 2k and couldnt get my exhaust to polish. Picking up 600 and gonna give ur another go
Glad this helped you out.
Thank you for all the educational information! I've been told wrong by a whole lot of guys that say the finer the paper the deeper the shine and I've wasted so much time with the black hayes and cloudy shine. Extremely helpful video!
No problem. Glad to have been some help. Thank you for watching and supporting. Just trying to get info out there.
Hadn't I see this video prior starting my bicycle restoration project, I would have given up after first attempt. By following your brilliant video here, Evan, I was able to get nice mirror shine with less effort than I thought needed. Thank you, man! You deserve 1 million subscribers!
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate your kind words and I am happy to hear that you were able to get the results you were wanting.
I just wanted to stop in a say how much this has helped me.. Im building a new snowmobile and was struggling polishing the new alum tunnel.. I even tried up to 5000.. lol.. after watching your video.... I now go straight to 800 grit sanding and only 800, then 2 cuts with orange buff/Brown and then right to white buff/purple for a near mirror finish..
Happy to hear this was helpful to you. Thank you for watching!
I've only gone up to 800 a couple times before I started to cut, i thought about trying a higher grit and after seeing this video I'm glad I stopped at 800, I was amazed at the fact I was able to make those tanks shine at all ( 20 to 25 years never been polished before and very rough) my customers were very happy and as surprised as I was
Appreciate you watching and commenting. Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you! I decided to undertake the polishing of my aluminum front door, which I thought would be a simple process with the right tools, and have spent the last week raging at the innefective mess I created and countless hours spent. Like others, the most popular videos on youtube involve using up to 5000 grit sandpaper and make the process look as easy as 1-2-3. I couldn't figure out why for the life of me, the whole thing started to look *worse* as I went up in grits. Then when it came time to polish, the black film was practically impossible to remove without the use of solvent and left bands of haze. It was maddening! I just went and knocked the whole thing back down with brown scotch-brite pads, proceeded straight to buffing, and wow!
Happy to hear that this was helpful to you and you were able to finish your project! Thank you for watching!
I've been polishing my cast aluminum Harley stuff the wrong way for years thank you for the tutorial. 👍
You bet, glad it helped you out.
I used 320 - 400 - 600 with wet dry paper. I screwed up with a fine brass brush doing paint removal and the 320 let me work those out with light elbow grease. Then the 400 then I ended with the 600 and fine emery cloth to get out hair line grit marks I made accidentally touching the paper. And then clear coated. My aluminum project turned out awesome with your grit advice. I believe I could of polished next and had nice clean good results but I had to finish up could not wait any longer for a kit. The alternate idea to polish came too late.
Not sure how I missed this vid, but this is one of your best sanding vids! I only polish my personal stuff, and I’ve spent all day before sanding one rim. Goes to show that finer isn’t always better. Thanks Evan!!
P.S. Buy your products from Evan, and you can follow along using exactly what he uses so there’s no surprises. I’ve learned what I know just from watching his vids. Pay attention, as it’s the small details that matter most, like using cotton terry, not microfiber. I polish my own, and the results speak for themselves.
Truly appreciate your support. Means a lot that you have supported the product business and this channel. Thank you for watching.
Thank you again, it means a lot.
Thank you very much for the video. I am very new to polishing. I polished my first wheel and it came out well, tried sanding the next one and I took it to 1,000 thinking the smoother the better. It came out with less shine then the first one. I was very confused but this video explains everything perfectly.
Glad this was helpful for you. I appreciating you watching and commenting.
Wow Evan, and you just proved my theory wrong, because on cars the higher the grade the better the outcome, so thank you very very much for all the information. You are truly an inspiration
Thanks for watching.
thank you so much evan. I have tried with different machines and sanding and polishing materials on stainless steel and none of them worked in my case. Now i tried with your instructions in this video I've used 400,600,800 grit only and polished on 600 grit sanding it looks just perfect and 400,800 not that good as 600. Thanks again...🙏🙏🙏
Super happy this was helpful. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Evan , You have the best channel for hands on advice , I have learnt so much about polishing and the products to use to get a top quality finish. 👍
Thank you. I am happy to hear that the videos are helpful. Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
Awesome video man! Was having problems polishing the lip on my wheels I was sanding up to 2000 before polishing! Sanded again at 600 and polished looks way better!
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching.
I have been sanding bicycle parts with a bristle disc on a Drexel up to 2000 grit and had trouble getting the mirror finish first time i.stopped at 600 then went to pollish bam mirror finish thank you evan
Make that a dremel
Sometimes it just helps to know. Glad it worked. Thanks for watching and dropping a comment.
🎉you tell them brother I normally only go to 600 or 800 myself and get pretty decent results self taught and driver made I love my guys they're awesome I hear all the time someone saying I take it to 1,500 plus I'm like dude it's pointless there's no need for it it might buffing a little easier or faster but not by much
Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment.
Evan,
That was a great explanation and the results speak for themselves. Thank you for taking time to film, edit and post this video.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching.
OMG!! Finally found answers! Great explanations and demonstration :)
Thank you so much for that video! Like many others in the comments below, I had this problem and I was also told the same about finer grit.
I make mirror finish custom built kitchen hoods, and I struggled like crazy with those foggy marks on my last project: reflection of the light on the big flat inclined surface make it appeared even worse : (
I'm looking forward for better results now knowing this! Very helpful!
You are welcome! I am so glad that this video was helpful. I appreciate you watching and let me know how it turned out.
Awesome demonstration!! Almuminum I only go to 600 or maybe 800 but stainless steel you need to get up into the 1000’s to get that mirror finish
I get mirror finish on my stainless at 600 grit also. If you sand anything properly you should be able to buff out 600 grit scratches. But I've also been doing this 24 years. LOL Thank you for watching and commenting.
Thanks. Very interesting.
I will try it on the aluminum.
Thank you for watching and I hope this video helped
Thanks for taking the time to help others, this video helped me out today
Glad to help.Thanks for watching.
Best video on sanding metal I’ve watched. I watched from bell to bell. Thank You
Wow, I’ve really learnt something today!
Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching.
Very helpful! Now I understand why some of the stuff I did didn’t come out well. Thanks!!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching and commenting.
Very informative and expertly presented: thanks for taking the time to share it.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! Appreciate your compliments, happy to hear they are helpful.
WoW... that was so informative! Priceless!!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching and commenting.
hI evan, afer watching your many videos, i started buffing and coloring my stainless steel sink in my kithche, i thought of replacing it, but looking at all videos, i bought makita 3200 RPM polishing buffer and used red and pink airway bufing wheel with black and yellow compound it came very nice and I am very pleased. while doing this i had a challenge on the corner of kitchen sink where shape is concave.. do you have any tips or suggestion .. i tried different angle. may be i am missingn something.
In the really tight corners, we use a cone buff or a mushroom buff with both black Rouge yellow Rouge or green Rouge. All of them put on a drill and shoved into the corner will help you polish those.
Thank you, Man! Great informative video. I was about to hit it with 1200 grit before polish, now I’m heading for 600. Thanks. Best regards, SN.
You're welcome. Happy to help. Thanks for watching
Awesome info. One may think it’s like paint work, the finer the smoother the better the paint, right? But proof is in the pudding here. Aluminum is similar to skin, need the pours open to get a deep clean… great video my friend. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your input! I appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment.
Evan Thanks for the video, it really helps to know that info.
Glad to help and give back. Thank you for the support and the kind comment. I will continue to try to give my best when I can. If you ever have more questions hit me up.
Thank you for explaining so well.It is the opposite to what I thought and you explained why.Great video.
Thank you. I am glad this was helpful to you. Thanks for watching.
what if you're trying to remove scratches from glass? how fine would you sand up to before a final polish with cerium oxide?
I'm definitely no expert on glass. I wouldn't know where to begin. Sorry I can't help in this area. I know my metals but glass is outside of my scope. Thank you for the comment though.
wouldn’t you be using a different compound for the higher grit though?
You can but the results will still be the same. The pores close up too much to allow any compound in.
Just found ur channel.....👍
Can I apply this video towards cleaning my aluminum rims off my Dually! Other than polishing in the military.....I have never polished a rim in my life.
As long as the rim isn't clear or plastic coated yes you can
Awesome demonstration. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for watching.
Thanks for all the tips they come in really handy
All you teach on here I’ve learned a whole bunch from you and thank you again
Truly happy to hear that the videos and tips are helpful to you. I appreciate you watching and supporting this channel.
This is insane I would have never gotten this bumper to shine without finding this video.
Happy to help! Thanks for watching.
It would really be helpful to know what grade aluminum that tank is. I work with marine grade 5052 and I suspect different alloys may have different properties.
Great video, I've had this problem before, now I know why , thank you
Thanks for watching.
When I polish, I get the same haze that is shown on the higher grits, even though I'm only sanding up to 600. Any tips? Maybe too much compound or not enough pressure on the buff?
you have both of the correct answers. Either one could be the culprit.
Is this for aluminum and steel? Or is this process the same with steel
I do the same process on both. But that is just me. To each their own way. But this is my way. Thanks for watching.
Ive had success with wet sanding for 1000+ grit and results were amazing...didnt need to polish hardly.
Appreciate you watching and commenting.
I was watching a video on sharpening knives and 600 grit was the best and anything else wasnt needed and after seeing this i understand why, its the pores 😅 but in sharpening knives we also use chrome oxide to finish off the edge.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Cool demonstration , thumbs up
Thank you! I appreciate it.
Awesome man this is helping me on some 22.5 alcoas
Great to hear!
What a contrasting result in polishing clear coats. When u sand 2000 or 3000 the clear is polished easier and shine at highest level!
Thanks for watching.
I heard from another channel that depending on paint you use for example can spray paint a higher sand grit in needed for paint adhears better? Is this the case?
I'm sorry we don't do anything with paint. We only polish metal. We sand to polish not to paint. Sorry I have zero info in that department.
Appreciate the tips and knowledge.
Thanks for watching.
What about wet sanding vs dry? Is one better than the other? I see most videos are sanding dry.
Friggen Legend👍 Thank you
Thank you!
Thanks for the info just bought a new set of rims love the design hate the color so plan on stripping paint and will sand them. Since they’re a brand new wheels would I still work my way up to 400 grit or can I start at 400?? Thanks for any info!
So what about for stainless..does that apply to stainless to?
Ahh...I see that yellow Kokeur tripoli in the background... my favorite stuff.
Thank you for watching and taking time to comment!
Very helpful! Thank you so much for sharing your hard earned experience. Im looking to get a buffing kit any suggestions?
Depends what you are looking to do but goshineon.com has a bunch of helpful kits that I put together to simplify the choices. We have small kits and big kits.
Evan I used a rotary with a thousand grit and da thousand grit I found it works but definitely takes way longer to cut out 600 is definitely the sweet spot I rotary a tank but I found the higher you go past 600 it harder for the buff to cut
So many ways to polish. This is the best part. No right or wrong ways. If it shines its right... Thank you for watching and supporting.
Thank you😊
You're welcome
Do compound bars have a life span?
Very good information
Thanks for watching.
Thanks so much. Very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed itThanks for watching.
Orbital vs. sanding disc attachment on a grinder
I am working on that video for sure.
Had polished a set of new tanks in the past up that high, they looked milky, now I know why. Thanks! I wonder if cleaning with acid between passes would make a difference?
We tried that. Still didn't work any better.
Can you do polishing after sandblasting? I’m working on an aluminum boat so I don’t have a ton of material to work with
I personally won't polish anything sand blasted. Sandblasting makes a mess of aluminum..But just my opinion..
Would this method work on motorcycle frames, metal or aluminum ,stop at 600 grit or go all the way to 2000 grit? Thanks
I stop at 400 or 600 on everything aluminum and stainless. Great question.
Also noticed as soon as he hits right around the 1000 mark the buffer tries to launch upward you can see the buffer move upward.
It just soaks up the rouge... Real grabby stuff.
Hello.
Which grit should i use after first coat of paint and before second coat on metal grill? 400 or 600
No idea. We don't do paint. We just polish metal.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I appreciate this explanation, I polish raised numbers and letters cast plaques, I bought a grinder /polisher all the airways and bars and always struggle, first I have tried using buffs but it's like polishing a rake with the raised letters pulling the compound off and building up on the plaque, I can eventually get a shine but then I have a massive mess of compound to clean off before I can paint the background. I then started to just sand from 80 to 5000 and then use a liquid such as white diamond or a wizards. I do achieve a shine but it has swirl marks I can't get rid of. I was polishing one last week and tried using my fine buff and compound to get rid of the swirl marks and ended up with a mess of smeared compound, your video here explains why. Do you have any suggestions that may help with my situation? Thanks
Would this same process work on brass?
Awesome video I love it!!😀👍🏼
Appreciate it, thank you.
thank you
You're welcome! I hope you for this video helpful and I appreciate you taking time to comment.
Hey there, I'm currently polishing an airstream and have done an initial cut with Brown tripoli and a red airway wheel using the Dewalt variable speed polisher. I then cleaned the surface with mineral spirits and changed to a coloring wheel and moved to a green moss compound, I noticed from certain angles and lighting, a brown haze develop after step 2. Is this something you've experienced before? and what can I do about this? ( I did not have to sand it)
Brown haze traditionally to me means burns but I’d need to see it.
GREAT EXPERIMENT!
Thanks for watching.
Awesome info! So hey if someone has to hand polish, can you hand polish out 600 or 800grit within a reasonable amount of time or is that pretty much impossible?
You can with our Luhmi hand polish followed by the Time2Shine aluminum polish.
What kind of sander is that? A DA or random orbital?
Random orbital.
Would this apply to sanding brass also?
Dang. That makes alot of since man. Ive done a good bit of toons on pontoons and wheels and i had to work more. Lol. Man. Ima test this out lol.
Thanks for watching.
Whish I would've watched this before I bought all my sanding discs. I just bought up to 1500 grit for some wheels I'm going to be working on. Live and learn I guess lol.
I will be redoing some pieces of trim for my Bronco though, I took that to 3000 by hand and didn't think the shine and reflection are what it could be
Hope it worked well for you. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
What are your thoughts when It comes to sanding and buffing painted surfaces or clear coat that has orange peel?
I personally don't do paint. So I don't really have any kind of opinion on that matter. Sorry bud.
Would the same still apply if you are polishing by hand after sanding with a da?
Could you resand the 1000 with 400 then cut? Would that reverse the problem of clarity?
We tried that. The 3,000 wrecked the pores. I ended up sanding it down to 180 then back up to 600 to make it polishable again.Thanks for watching.
Thanks for sharing this, im going through this now while trying to do some tool restorations, its like pseudo science that goes against what we learned when younger... Not understanding why the metal is not doing what we want gets frustrating... learning alot from vids. Thanks. Why no hole sandpaper?
I love no hole sandpaper
Is it stainless steel?
It looks like you weren't washing off the residue of the previous sand paper before moving onto the next - so by the time you reach 3000 all you've done is compound the residue of all the previous sanding into the surface - hence it's smooth but not shiny. I was surprised that you were dry sanding from 400 up anyway - I've seen people sanding with water or oil from 400 up with some great results but never dry - was there a reason for doing it dry?
What's the best place to purchase polishing supplies?
Goshineon.Com I sell what I use.
WoW… this video saved me a lot of unnecessary work. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Great to hear!
This not a criticism as your real world expertise is extremely valued. However, it has been my understanding that you should be wet sanding with any of these higher grits and you are dry sanding here. Do you think that wet sanding the higher grits would make a difference in how it finishes out or would you still run into the issue of the aluminum not accepting the polish?
I work in a polishing shop. I will test wet/dry sanding and see how that pans out.
Also, whenever we do higher grits we ALWAYS clean the surface after sanding as any particulates can mix with the grit of the rouge making all the effort for nothing.
Keep your work clean.
We have tried both wet and dry over the years and always end up with the same results.
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing if the results are the same dry or wet, do pads hold up better to one or the other?
Very interesting experiment and I have a few theories:
1. The hardness of the metal/alloy matters - as we see in the video it works very well for aluminium but going higher in Stainless Steel helps a lot
2. I feel the grit used (rouge) works well for 600 but having a finer grit may have worked for 1000 and above . From a personal experience products like gords work well in clearing the haze
3.For this system I feel that 600 + rouge on airway buff works very well as demonstrated. Will a DA with Pad work better for 1000+ based on the grain direction?
Thank you for sharing! Appreciate you watching and commenting.
Can you sand then hand polish it and it look good?
If you are wanting to do this we have a product called LUHMI that allows to you hand polish out 600 grit. It is amazing. You can get it at www.goshineon.com
Does this theory work the same for sanding and polishing by hand? I’m trying to fix my wheels right now. I started wetsanding from 800 up to 3000 and polishing with sinister devils brew. And so far it’s coming out absolutely perfect
By hand is completely different. But I can hand polish 600.
Thanks for this info! Interesting about the pores closing up. I wonder if this happens on mild steel also. I am doing a deep dive into mirror finishes on mild steel for my plasma cut artwork. It makes a lot of sense to only go up to a certain grit and then start cutting (if that is the correct term - I'm just begining the journey-sort of).
I saw one guy polish stainless going up to 5000 grit with Alumicut and it came out pretty sweet. I guess Alumicut is a light oil? I've actually used compound paste for paint, Mother's metal polish and green and black polishing sticks with a flat 4" fine grade wool disc. It works pretty well for buffing/polishing. I have even thought of trying a polishing paste with the sandpaper to speed up the process. Is that just crazy or will it work?
One of my challenges is polishing a piece with multiple egdes, curves and points, which can grab (flat) sandpaper and trash it instantly. I just got a (short throw) DA orbital sander and am experimenting with it over various grits of sandpaper. I discovered if I use a 6" disc on a 5" pad, I can bend up the edges enough to clear 'obstacles'.
Any advice would be appreciated.
After 400 ideally start to use some lubricant to remove particles between work piece and sandpaper also to cool the workpiece in some items (glass etc) Try using hard backed disc instead of foam backing, especially at lower grids to cut surface better. After you remove them, sandpaper shouldn’t catch that often. If you want to make chamfer to your work piece hard backed disc is a must for me. Foam pads gives me a round over instead of chamfer. Hope it helps.
G'day Evan, as a guy down under, (so sadly, can't take one of your classes,) is there anyway you can show the pores? Love all your teaching, inspiring and educational. Would also love to know if using a slower speed buffer, say the 3000rpm, would the results be better or worse than this? Cheers.
Yes I found with slower speed it was even worse. Next time I meet with my metallurgist I will see if he is ok with me filming and showing the pores of the aluminum. Thanks for watching.
@@EvanStegerMetalPolishing that would be amazing. Love your work mate, (side note, just ordered some time to shine products from your Australian distributor, can't wait to try it out!)
I am thinking about polishing my own wheels, car wheels. I have no intention of using machines, i plan to hand sand everything. Couple questions, ive seen some japanese use wet sand method by hand sanding. Should i do this as well? Ive been trying to do some research and even watch some of your videos and you never touched on wet sand because you only use machines. Any advice would be great
No don’t wet sand just dry sand and I recommend using a orbital makita sander like the one Evan is using , very handy
if you’re gonna sand and they don’t look too bad start with 600 if they are bad and have pitting go with 400
And if they are bad bad go to 320 400 then 600
@@ogjhernandez2537 why not wet sand. I plan on hand sanding. No machines
@@km6832 no need to
Evans isn’t doing it
Only wet sand if it’s paint by what I know of to remove scratches
@@ogjhernandez2537 ah
@@km6832 yeah bro 320 400 600 if they are really bad wheels
If they are dull just do 600 and then cut and color
Damn i think this might solve my problem. Ive been sanding up to 2000 and getting lots of haze. Is it possible to sand with these higher grits and go straight to yellow/green?
How come you prefer sand paper with no holes? This was a great video by the way, always learning somethin new from you!
Where to order those buffing wheels and compound?
goshineon.com
What kind of sanding paper do u use? Like the brand?
Sold on our website. www.Goshineon.com
Amazing...Thank You
Thank you too! Appreciate you watching and taking the time to comment.