Why i love aluminum (and other soft metals)

[snakeyes711]

Nice guys! I use a bench grinder with a huge wheel on the side to polish. A few tricks to polishing are, heat get it hot. Sometimes I put it in the oven for a few minutes to preheat it. I polish with thick welding gloves on as aluminum, gets hot. Also when you add polish don't add it to the piece you are polishing only to the wheel. Also work in one direction if you go the wrong way it'll spit polish on your piece. Torque, friction help a lot, use good tools, to polish with. I burnt up a Dewalt 4 1/2" grinder with 5" buffing pads polishing my sport bikes rear subframe...Ok, it was like 3 years old

I love polishing stainless steel, I fabbed up a custom pipe for a small dirt bike that had the muffler cut off when I bought it. I polished the can when I got through rolling it, and welding it. That thing is STILL shining! Never dulls. G/L

Gave any thought to grinding down the welds?

BTW, those look like tig welds everyone has to start somewhere. Also when I polish aluminum, the dimes shape look, turns into looking like one piece when I polish, you gotta get it hot.

 

[95GreenGSX]

Glenn- First of all, It looks as good as always! But I do have some questions, Where did you buy the aluminum 'box' or is it just square aluminum tubing? I'm assuming you cut the tops and bottoms? And how thick? Also, why so much filler around the AN fitting?

 

[blcknspo0ln]

you cut your finger

Most random comment, ever.

 

[PIMking]

A good aluminum polish is White Diamond. I use it on my aluminum wheels on my truck. Brings out a mirror finish. Just go to a truck stop and buy a bottle. The best part about it is you don't need a buffer to use it. just a nice clean towel.

 

[spoonman]

Most random comment, ever.

He really did cut his finger half off, I can't believe kewlguy posted that though.

 

[quayzar590awd]

Yes it can shine.

 

[snakeyes711]

Thats nice guayzar, I could do that to my AR! naah, think I'll do it up in tiger stripe, or urban jungle cam. So your slide is stainless, is the bottom frame aluminum? I polished my SKS's bolt, and the flash hider like that, I like it!

 

[quayzar590awd]

No its full stainless, I have a few other polished pieces but in general most of my stuff is factory blue. I polished the top plate the bolt and the gas operating tube plunger on one of my A.K. 47's . It came out good. I plan to do the forward grip surround and maybe the vent for the gas operating tube. I went from an ugly butterscotch furniture color to a wonderful shade of oak. Smoothed out the thumb hole stock ever so slightly to make it easier for people with small hands to wield it properly. I have also polished various parts on my and other peoples cars.

 

[snakeyes711]

uh, ok, I did my old .45 the same way it had a black slide, and frame I polished the slide out nice. It would collect corrosion once in a while but it was still pretty nice. The frame was aluminum, I didn't polish it instead gave it the brush look. Still nice piece.