I've seen a few mods recently that featured mirror finish polishing on some of the components. I have attempted to pull this trick on a PSU out of one of my systems, and I have gotten it to look pretty sweet, but it is not what I would call "mirror". Perhaps I am jsut a bit of a perfectionist, but I really think it could look a lot better. I wanted to know if anyone could tell me a good polishing/ buffing compound that I could go to the store and pick up ( no online ordering). And I am trying to find a guide to pull this off. I have the right idea, but i get the feeling that there is something I am not doing or doing wrong. So if anyone knows of a good guide out there please link me up. And I am sure that more than a few of you have some polishing skills, so all input would be greatly appreciated!
once you get all the paint or whatever coating is on the part you want polished, smooth it out with sandpaper and gradually move to higher grit until about 1500-2000 grit. then buff with mothers mag and aluminum polish. this guy is on a site i go to all the time and that is what he uses to get this (not chrome, just polished aliminum and steel!) edit: when buffing use either a buffing wheel or a mothers mini-ball in a variable speed drill, works wonders.
I had thought about Mothers, but wasn't sure if it would work on steel. It is awesome stuff. I used it quite a bit when i worked in a detail shop. I have sanded it all the way up to 2000 grit, and it does look really good already, but I want to be able to shave in this thing. I tried a little buffing compound that I have, but it is too coarse and actually dulled it from where it was with the 2000 grit. Thanks for replying so quick! I will go and grab some Mothers. That mini ball doesn't cost much does it?
eh, 20 bucks. the more you buff on it with the mothers polish the better it looks. its pretty mild so it will be able to get the mirror look you want. just hand wiping it for about 30 seconds works really well on smooth stuff
This is probably the best painting/polishing guide I know of... although this is a very good article too
Yeah, I've seen that first one before. That man is lethal with a can of spray paint! But I am talking about a mirror-finish on bare metal. Basically trying to make it look like chrome. Was inspired by the project logs: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=101458 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1103153&postcount=13 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1105085#posted=1post1105085 http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1103118&postcount=3 I have gotten real close with sandpaper up to 2000 grit, but the polish i have (No.7 Polishing Compound) is too course for this application. I am going to go out and get some Mothers polish today. I was also unsure of the polishing method. I know with the sandpaper, you go opposite direction everytime you switch grit (perpendicular to the last grooves to remove them). But I always thought that the proper polishing method is to go in circles. Anybody got some advice? Hazardous-Thanks for the links to the guides. Good stuff for my next paintjob.
Mothers Mag Polish NeverDull Both those mentioned above work wonders on steel. I use them both on my snowmobile even after a hard day of riding hitting dirt, mud, rocks and anything else you can think of, those two polishes have chromed the sled right back up. Just make sure when using the Mothers Polish that you really give it some elbow grease until you start to see black residue, then after u see black residue take a soft clean cloth and wipe it away and look at yourself in the mirror
I went out and got the Mothers and Mini Powerball today. Went to town on the entire PSU. I'll admit, it is improved, but not what I would call a mirror. It has this sort of foggy look to most of it. Around the edges, about 1/4 inch all the way around each side, it looks perfect. Looks just like chrome. But after that towards the middle has this haze to it that I just can't get to go away. I used as much force as I could get into it, used about 1/5 of a 5oz. can, and it still looked the same as it did after about the first 10 seconds of polishing. I don't know what it is. I know that if something can be polished, Mothers will make it look its absolute best. I'm starting to think that maybe it is the metal. Like maybe there is something messed up with it. I don't know if that's even possible, but I am getting really frustrated. All that effort and it still isn't mirrored. My original plan was to test out the polishing on this PSU, and if it turned out as good as I hoped (like the fanbus in the link above), I was going to polish the entire chassis (insides, frame, whatever you like to call it) to a mirror finish. I think I am going to try it out on my newer PSU. The old one had that gray looking paint, or whatever it is on it like the old PCs used to look like inside. My new one is already bare aluminum, and looks pretty clean and shiny to begin with. I hope this one turns out better. I am started to get discouraged. "Why can't I do it that good? I'm a loser. I'll never be a great modder like those guys... " No, just kidding. I am starting to get pretty aggravated, though. Sometimes I think my ideas exceed my skills.
well that was easy. Grabbed a mobo tray I have laying around that is the same aluminum that the new PSU is. You know, the same aluminum that is in 95% of cases these days. Real quick with 800, 1500, then 2000. Hit it with the powerball and Mothers, pushed as hard as I could (without bending the tray all to hell) and... bam, mirror finish! I don't know what is up with the old PSU, but apparently whatever it is made of does not polish to a mirror shine. For starters, it is made out of some kind of sheet metal, not aluminum. I would imagine that aluminum is easier to polish due to its softness. I am feeling much better now that I know it was not my polishing skill in question, but the material I was polishing! Perhaps I have to polish each side on that thing for like an hour apiece? Don't know. I will probably leave that up to someone else to figure out . Anyhoo, feeling reguvenated, and will probably end up going to town on my new PSU and/or my main rig's chassis. I would take some pics with my camera phone, but we all know what kind of quality camera phones give you. I need to get a good Digital. Oh well, back to the modding!!!! (Thanks for all your help guys!)
Could be some sort of nickel coating. If you still got any elbow grease, might need to start even lower on the grit, say 400 and work your way back up. I keep water/soap coming to wash away the particles. I've done perpendiculars and figure of eights. Circles, you worry about convexity, more of a problem when lapping a heatsink. I use 3M rubbing compound, could try that: My contributory pic. navig
I used MAAS, A Fine Polishing Creme For All Metals, to polish both copper and stainless steel to mirror finish after sanding with up to 2000 grit sand paper. Here are some representative pictures of stainless steel before and after polishing with MAAS, which I got at Home Depot by the way.
Hmm my knife has been poslished but could use a much better look. Im thinking I need this mothers stuff.
