Polishing castings

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Polishing castings

Postby Nick » Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:15 pm

When I used to do a lot of restoration, I would take the castings and have them professionally blasted to a nice shiny surface. The place where I took them is no longer in business and I am not sure there is anyone else here that will do that.

Does anyone have a contact for someone that does this sort of work routinely?

Also, if I want to try and hand polish a little bit, what would you recommend that I use? Steel wool? Somthing else?

Thanks.

Nick
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Re: Polishing castings

Postby Rick-okc » Mon Aug 13, 2018 6:58 am

Nick,
Blasting the castings should leave them with a dull or satin finish, depending on the blasting material used.
If I have a casting that is really dirty, I'll glass bead blast it with as light a pressure as I can use to get the casting clean.
Then I'll start with 220 grit sand paper and lightly sand the areas I want to bring to a high polish.
Next, I'll use a finer grit paper, then a finer grit paper, then a finer grit paper.
Then I'll use a buffing wheel to finally bring out the polished look I'm going for.

If you don't want to go through all that, then look around for a company that does bead blasting and one that does polishing.
If you have a plating business nearby, they can do the polishing.

Hope this helps.

If you're ever in the central Tennessee area, give me a yell.

Rick
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