Mirror Shine on Stainless Steel

freddmc

I am making some ss parts and having trouble getting a mirror shine.
Using a soft polishing wheel and green compound
I am able to get a pretty good shine but not a mirror shine.

For those who have done this do I need to go to a liquid polishing compound. If so what brand and what kind of a polishing wheel do I use
Thanks

Fred Mc

BGW

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jeepinchris

I am definetly interested as well. Like you Fred, I can make it shine but a chrome appearance would be nice.

If the answer can be found, it will be by the members here!

freddmc

Well, here is an answer to my own question. Might be of interest to others.

SS is really hard so its really different to polish than Al.
On another forum it was suggested to first sand it with 400 and then 600 using a sander. I did this.

Then you need a fairly aggressive polishing compound so I used the brown and a sewn wheel. It probably wasn't a hard enough wheel but its what I had so I used it.

Third I hit it with white compound and a really soft wheel.

Lastly I used the green compound and a soft wheel.

There also is an even finer compound which I don't have but the shine I got is pretty close to mirror finish. It probably could be a little better but I am fairly satisfied with the results I got.

I may get some of the finer compound to try and if I do I will post results.

Fred Mc.

pansser

thanks for the info!

downtick

Have you tried any of the Maguires compounds, I have a few in my garage, but they are very milds. I've used them to buff a few things out, but nothing creates a shine. I have quite a few pieces I'd like to shine.

sabercat

Walter (tool company) makes a 2 step paste. used with a cotton wheel on a drill or grinder works very well. almost chrome finish

buddy48

I work for a pharmaceutical company an we have lots of shiny stainless steel!!

Depending on what you want it to look like and what you want to spend you can get it to a mirror finish. The process is called electropolishing. The company we use is UltraClean. They have locations in TX, CA and PA.

I would think there would be someone closer to you possibly and probably cheaper if you do some resaerch.

sms-shop

don't stop at 600 grit paper step up to 1000 then 1500 and then 2000 before polishing...
the prep work is the key to any polishing..... with out good prep work it will take hours to get good results...now if you know anybody that has a good high speed buffer that you can use thats the ticket..like this one

DOOmsman

Yep you won't get it done with out a ton of hours or a good buffing machine.
Now the bad news, some SS alloys will only shine up so far, ask me why and I will say duh.

llrollins3

if you wanna finish off that shine and make it really sparkle try cheap toothpaste. the kind that feels gritty in your mouth when you use it and a soft buffing wheel. we used to use it to finish polish plastic molds. smells nice to!!!lol