A lot of people like the look of something that has been mirror-polished. So when I decided that i wanted my case to be polished to a mirror finish a couple months ago, I looked around, and eventually found one at Metku Mods. Since there weren't any guides for polishing aluminum here, i brought it here. The case featured here is the Shuttle ST61G4 Case. The ST61G4 XPC case from Shuttle are pretty gosh darn good looking by themselves, but if you own one or another polished aluminum case, you may be getting a bit bored with your unit. [ST61G4 is the model featured] The ST61G4 has a neat little feature; a mirrored surface on the front face with the shuttle logo in the lower right corner. The housing is aluminum, and the front bezel is plastic. The 5.25" drive bay cover is made out of plastic too, which rules out polishing the front of the case. Original ST61G4 XPC Case Surface of most of the case cove has been anodized and brushed to have the good ol' brushed aluminum texture. It's gonna be a bit difficult to dig through the anodizing but with proper tools it will not take that long. (reference to burning it off) BUT, there are other ways to remove this layer. Methods in which you don't need mechanical tools or fire, but good old sand paper will do nicely. Closeup of the anodizing and the brushed aluminum look Polishing products from English Custom Polishing Those bottles up there will provide the solution to the age-old question; How do you make metal shine like a mirror? For this little projekt, you don't need to get every item in the store but the real time/money saver is to utilize the right product at the right time. These bottles are available from English Custom Polishing, as they recently introduced them to their product lineup. Retail packages can be seen on their site and the product names are the same as the ones in the pikture above. Polish/Tools You'll need sanding paper, and something to apply the polishing products to the bare metal with At the top left corner, you'll see a rubber sanding block that will give support while wet sanding. It will apply a steady pressure and cover larger surface area than possible with bare hands. Next to it are the three different wet sanding paper grits that you will be using; 600,800, and then 1200, working up to 1200. The last two tools needed are are on the right; two different cloths that are needed for the different stages of polishing. 1200 on the right, 600 on the left, and 800 in the middle. The three different sandpapers will be used after the removal of the anodizing. Don't, i repeat,DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE ANODIZING BY HAND!! IT WILL NOT EVEN SCRATCH THE SURFACE AND IT WILL WASTE YOUR TIME!!! This here anodizing clearly serves it's purpose, protect the metal beneath. Wondering it's called wet sanding paper? Since the sand in the paper is so fine, plenty of water will be needed to keep the paper clean from that pesky sanding dust. Without water the paper will get gunked up and become useless useless after few seconds of usage. The two cloths needed Those are the two different cloths that you should use to polish the metal with. The white cloth (the one with tight stitching) is used to apply the polish in early stages, and the yellow (micro fiber) cloth is used to obtain that shiny mirror effect finish. Good quality and clean cloths are a must because they will provide us with the smoothest and highest quality results. OK. Now the steps for working with the case cover. (in other words, the fun part ) Random Orbital Sander (ROS) needed to remove the anodizing That's what you need to get that pesky anodized surface off. The grits used are 100, 160 and 320. It should take between 15-30 minutes (depending on size of case, size of sander, etc.) to get to the 320 grit and smooth the deepest scratches from previous grits off. Yes. Nice medium-shiny case (little drawing on the right to show the faint reflection) That's how the metal will look after the treatment of the ROS. On the bottom right corner you will notice a little drawing; a faint reflection of it can be seen on the cover. The procedures for wet sanding are quite simple. Start with the roughest grit you have. Use plenty of water to keep the paper clean and gunk free. Sand only to one direction until you notice a change in the way it feels; that means it's time to change to a finer grit. When you change the paper, change the sanding direction as well. Make it 90 degrees from that previous grit. Then sand as until you can no longer see the marks from the previous grit (as you are removing the scratches left by the previous grits) Repeat these procedures as many times as you have different grits. The finer the paper, the smoother the surface and the easier it is to polish. Polishing Much better mirrored surface "I thought we were making the cover shine like a mirror, why is it black?" All of the magic and all of the other oompla-loompla madness is happening beneath the removed materials and chemicals. Notice how the cleaned space at the middle of that dull black area shows what it will look like pretty soon. Just keep on polishing, because more you work on the surface the more beautiful and mirror-y it will be. Oh yeah...every little spot you miss or don't work thoroughly will show, so be careful, precise and systematic. The amount of polish you'll need will vary, but in general, these products do the magic with very little polish. One bottle will last for many cases, at least with these small barebones. Reason for this is that the stuff you remove by polishing the surface, works for you and polishes the remaining surface even further. Reflectiveness after each step 1. Original surface with anodizing. Not that much reflection visible and the overall appearance is quite gray. 2. After sanding with random orbital sander. Starting to get some more reflection, and all of the surface texture has been removed. 3. After being polished with Metal Polish & Restorer. Almost a perfect mirror. Surface is still a wee bit hazy but there is still good reflection from the coin. 4. After being polished with Curator's Choice. More or less a perfect mirror. Gives a strong reflection without distortions of any kind. Finished Product Below. Comparison of original with polished one. Note: Information, tips, and pics via English Custom Polish, and Metku Mods Note(+1): The case featured IS NOT my case, but i did, in fact use this polish for another case, that I, sadly, no longer own
I put a link to http://metku.net/index.html?path=mod...ttle/index_eng in the sticky for modding links back in Oct.. This is somewhat expanded. We need to get this into a sticky. Great help john
