Hi Everybody,
I am pulling my hair out right now trying to understand how to get a
perfect high polish on brass plate.
The pieces are large…4" x 2"
and they are cut from .80mm plate…but when I get down to my rouge
phase…it just looks streaky/cloudy…and it’s not really very clear
high polish.
Tried changin’ buffs, nope…
Any Ideas from some of you pros out there?
Thank you!!!
Vanessa
I use very large industrial tools to polish large pieces of metal.
If you can’t do it yourself, there’s no shame in paying an
industrial polishing shop to do it for you. They shouldn’t charge you
too much either, and it will look great.
Regards Charles A.
The pieces are large...4" x 2" and they are cut from .80mm plate...but when I get down to my rouge phase...it just looks streaky/cloudy..and it's not really very clear high polish.
You have to pay a lot attention to pre-finishing. All scratches, no
mater how minute, have to be eliminated. You have to have surface
which is absolutely dead in appearance and no scratches. For final
buffing, use handheld polisher( like a dremel ) with cup-shaped
wheel. The object stays, while hand moves. You have to use largest
wheel possible. Light pressure with constant movement is required.
The process can be dangerous because large wheels grab easily.
Object must be secured and protective closing is mandatory. Another
option is to use polishing lap, but it also requires great deal of
experience.
Leonid Surpin
Hi Vanessa
do you have to use red rouge? Red rouge can be messy, leave streaks.
Try another final polish comp such as Luxi Orange High Luster
compound, Sunset polishing compound, yellow rouge, Zam or Fabulustre
(not prone to streaking). Look for a final polishing compound that
is for yellow metals or gives a great final polish. Use a flannel
wheel, rake it well to remove as much lint, and use a degreaser like
Simple Green to remove the compound. I find I need to go back with a
Sunsheen cloth to get an uniform finish, and sometimes with
Simichrome or Maas metal polish. It can be hard to get an uniform
polish that is even, so that’s why I’ll use a metal polishing paste
or Sunsheen cloth after buffing. I make flatware, so polishing an 12"
spoon can be challenging, much more when you do a dozen of them at
once. Hope it helps.
Joy
ps - I’ve banned red rouge from my studio.
...perfect high polish on brass plate.
Vanessa, what are you using before you get to the rouge phase? (I
have a personal preference for White Diamond, which both cuts a
little and polishes a lot.)
Judy Bjorkman
I’ve only done a little brass polishing, but I’ve had very good
results with tripoli followed by a very fine steel polishing
compound. That’s after prepping the surface to a grit rating in the
high hundreds. That yielded a very bright mirror finish, and that
was on a concave surface, so it wasn’t the easiest thing to
polish. Does the rouge you use work well for silver/gold?
Jamie Hal
http://primitive.ganoksin.com
You have to pay a lot attention to pre-finishing. All scratches, no mater how minute, have to be eliminated. You have to have surface which is absolutely dead in appearance and no scratches.
When finishing a flat surface I’ve observed that many of the coarse
surface scratches do not appear until the finer grits of emery are
used. I presume that means that the finish process is re-started
again with a coarse emery. At this point I take a guess at the
appropriate grit which will match the scratch that has to be
eliminated. A large flat surface is very difficult to finish to dead
level; often a scratch will reside in a very slight depression. I
have always wondered if the entire plane should be brought down to
the bottom level of the scratch, or if the scratch should be finished
locally. I suppose the larger the area the greater the need for dead
flat.
George