Hey all, I'm looking at a project that will involve polishing some small aluminum parts, most likely with a dremel. My question to you is how to go about feeding these little bits into the dremel without a finger getting in the way? I have two theories, not sure if they'll work: One, set the dremel up in a work station and then feed the parts in with pliers. But how do you grasp the parts with pliers without marring the finish? Two, clamp the parts down and then use a flex-shaft to get in close on them. Again though, at some point you'd be clamping down a polished part to get to the unfinished sides. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?
Wrap the prongs of your pliers with paper masking tape to prevent them from scratching the bits. If possible, screw a long bolt into the bits and use that as a mounting point.
Polishing aluminum is a bitch, a fat ugly wh0re Thank god I didn't have to do any small parts (log is in my sig)
OK, thanks I'll give the masking tape a go. There's nowhere to thread a bolt in though, I'm afraid. That would have solved the problem... And here I was hoping small parts would be easier because they had less surface area. I don't suppose they have to have a mirror shine like your drive enclosure though. Was all of your sanding done wet?
Alternatively you can buy nylon-coated jewellery maker's pliers; their jaws are equipped with soft plastic covers to offer a good grip without damaging delicate items, and they are dead cheap.
If you have several small parts to polish, you could make a ghetto tumble-polisher: Get a small cylinder with a lid (e.g. tin can), glue some vanes to the inside, put in your parts and some aluminium/plastic/ceramic shot (depending on desired finish, with polishing/barrelling compound if necessary), then attach it to a motor (e.g. dremel) and spin it for a few hours.
Tumblers are bad about not polishing indentions and smoothing sharp corners. Polishing with a padded vice or pliers works good. Just remember that little bits of aluminum will get hot FAST. (I assume you are asking because you figured that part out already.) Whatever is padding the clamps will need to be able to resist that. I'd go with rubber or popsicle stick.
I was thinking the same thing, but was going to suggest using cut up strips of leather, like from an old glove.....
You know, I hadn't even considered the heat issue. The idea of accidentally polishing a finger was as far as I got before deciding something more was needed. There might be an old bicycle inner tube around here somewhere...
There was a project on here somewhere, where someone did that and worked out well. Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
